The innocent die first
by PotatoGod69
Summary: Watch as a loyal hive world and ist populace is scorched in holy fire for crimes it did not commit. Will it fall to despair during its judgement or will it weather the storm and stand proud once again?(This is my first story so stick with me as I get better and improve and feel free to criticize my writing and give me advice on how to improve)
1. Chapter 1

Prolog

(PS. I don't own Warhammer40.000 in any fashion and I'm not doing this for any personal profit)

Charctus alpha had been a peaceful and wealthy world, known for its extravagant City's and beautiful natural environment. It was a young world, only colonized and founded no more than a thousand years ago and as such the population hadn't had the time to ruin its environment trough pollution.

It's citizens lived relatively happy lives that other worlds might only dream of. Their planetary Governor had a strong sense of responsibility for his people and thus ensured that they never had to suffer under a cruel regime. He did everything in his power to ensure that the effects of the wars being fought all over the galaxy where not felt be his world. He allowed much freedom for his people, never baring anybody from improving their lives.

Maybe he was a bit too hands off when I came to the power relations around him, allowing anybody competent enough to hold positions of power in all levels in society.

This freedom had unbeknownst to most people led to some suspicious people holding office in key areas of the world infrastructure. The Governor brushed this of as unfounded suspicion against people of lower birth and had shut down all investigations against them.

Trough this new found freedom thanks to the Governor these new members of the government soon began to construct worrisome schemes for the future. They pushed for increasing the defenses of their world. Calling for ever increasing defensive structures and military capacities. Arguing that it would only bee in their homes interests to defend their world and that all who opposed them clearly wanted their world open for everyone to attack. Who these attackers where was never mentioned though.

And thus with ever increasing pressure from the high ranking officials and his advisors the Governor allowed these plans to move along. Soon construction of massive orbital defenses began. Huge missile silos and laser batteries where built all around the hives. Ever increasing bunker complexes and trench lines where dug and improved upon over and over again. Vast recruitment campaigns where launched all over the world telling people to sigh up to defend their world from he treats that lye beyond.

The small PDF garrisons in each city grew into wast Armies practically overnight. Uncountable numbers of men and women, filled with a common urge to defend their homes and fight for the God Emperor , signed up. The quartermasters of the PDF regiments soon notes that the number of recruits vastly outstretched their stockpiles of weapons to arm them with.

Some of the government officials began to speak up against this massive up armament campaign. Arguing that surely there was would bee no need to increase the already vast defenses even more, that the newlevels of defenses where enough and in some cases excessive. These arguments where tough quickly silenced by the Governor in fear that it would anger the ones who where pushing for the increasing military capacity and that it would anger the people who would no longer be able to fight for the God Emperor. And so new decrees where passed that where to increase the production and stockpiling of weapons that where clearly needed by the PDF in their defense of their world from the great enemy.

After months of this up armament, the world of Charctus alpha could be considered by manny as a fortress world where it only was considered a hive world months ago.

The masses of new recruits where formed into new regiments of militia and stationed all around the hives in the newly constructed defensive positions.

At the end of the campaign to increase the defenses, political power had shifted from the Governor and his closest advisors to the people who pushed for all this to happen. The shift wasn't official but everyone with any hint of knowledge about politics could easily see how they Governor was now little more than a puppet for the new officials. Officials who had formed into one coherent ring of speakers and had started to call themselves the 'Disciples of the word'.

During all these months the rumors around these 'Disciples' hadn't gone away either. Quite the contrary, they had only increased. Rumors about far more controversial schemes where spreading like wildfire. Suspicion about whose disciples they really where had started to circulate as well and after weeks of constant complaints to the Governor, who still held official power was forced to comply with the wish of the ones opposing the Disciples to launch an investigation against them.

After that all had happened to quickly for anybody to stop the events that where to unfold in front of them. At first reports telling about the deaths of all those who where involved with the investigations against the followers of the Disciples began to come in to the office of the Governor. After that reports telling about terrorist attacks targeting all of the astropaths , who made communication with the wider imperium possible, came in. Now without any astropathic communication the planet was practically cut of from the rest of the galaxy.

Soon after, the Governor called for an emergency meeting with all of the officials to discuss how they where going to act in this unprecedented time of crisis. Before the meeting could really begin though the great hall used for the meeting was stormed by a group of armed militia soldiers. At the head of whom where the Disciples of the word.

They came to tell about how they where the masterminds behind all of these recent happenings. They explained that their intentions where to cut of the world from the imperium in the hopes of drawing a military response from the wider imperium and how they had forced the adtropaths to send a message to Holy Terra itself telling about how they renounced the emperor as a god and declared themselves independent from his rule. They explained how all of the campaigns to strengthen the world defenses where in reality to ensure that the imperial campaign to reclaim their world would be as bloody as it could possibly be and how they now where forced to fight their retribution if they wished to escape a painful death by burning at the stake as heretics.

After tilling the Government about their plan the members of the Disciples of the word began to chant in a language so offensive to all who heard it theta their ears began to bleed. During their chanting, the leader of the Disciples shouted out the words "glory to Lorgar Arelian and glory to the Four" before stabbing himself repeatedly with a knife in the chest and collapsing to the ground. His blood flowing in the shape of a eight pointed star on the ground. After that all of the Disciples handed themselves over into the custody of the Arbites, their mission now fulfilled.

(Wow, i can't wait for how it will continue. How will the population react to these recent events and their new situation. But most importantly…who will the imperium send as retaliation for the perceived rebellion of Charctus alpha?)


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2

Two years had passed since Charctus had been sentenced to death by the lords of the Imperium. Those two years had not gone idly by, preparations for the campaign had been under way for much of that time and a wast Army had been raised. Raised for the purpose of executing that sentence. And now after two years the fleet was ready and on its way towards its final destination.

The army consisted of a mixture of regiments from different worlds. The main task for the army was thought to be the besieging of the hives in a slow war of attrition and so much of the force consisted of infantry and siege regiments. Imperial high command estimated that the military garrisons of Charctus would be insufficient to engage the army in a pitched battle and that imperial forces would only have to fight the enemy in emplaced positions so the need for more mobile forces wasn't thought of as a big necessity. Still it was decided that it would be better with some more mobile elements to support the rest of the army and so the army counted 2 Tallarn tank regiments amongst its forces.

The Lord General appointed too be in command of the newly designated 147th Imperial guard siege Army, with much protest from the non Krieg regiments, was Marshal 198-254 of the 8th Line korps 198th siege regiment. Concerns where raised that having a Krieg officer in command would negatively effect the non Krieg regiments as their culture and way of fighting would conflict to much. Those concerns where though brushed aside with the argument that the marshals expertise on the matter of siege warfare and siege campaigns outweighed the cost of his style of command and strategy conflicting with the other regiments.

The Imperial guard forces where also bolstered by Astartes forces in the way of 100 Battle brothers of the Steel angels 2nd company who had pledged their support to the campaign to destroy the orbital defenses. But they where going to depart afterwards for other war zones deemed more in need of their support.

This combined fleet had been traveling through the warp towards its destination for a couple months now and was due to arrive soon. The regiments where hauled up in massive bulk transports whilst the astartes where traveling on theirs own vessel. The krieg regiments had been separated on one transport whilst the non Krieg regiments shared one transport to avoid the difficulties that would arise by having them interact and so close together.

* * *

One of those none Krieg troops was Sargent Williams of the cadian 173rd. He and the rest of his regiment where packed up in the cargo holds of the transport hauler Fleudelir Delusia. He and the rest of his squad had just completed their daily exercises and where now making their way towards the mess hall. He walked along the vast corridors that made up the ancient vessels internal layout. They where dressed in the standard green Cadian uniform, boots on and webbings on. The only thing they where not carrying where the flack west's and helmets often associated with the soldiers of Cadia.

News of their imminent arrival had made its way around the men and morale was high. Manny a conversation could be heard about hopes for the coming campaign. Manny hoped to maybe get a nice trophy of maybe a promotion when it was all over. Some of the excitement hade even found its way into his heart and he was looking forward to the war. He wanted to make the rebels pay for their rebellion. "…and maybe get a nice promotion and a little bit of fame along the way" he thought with a smirk. 'Sargent Williams, the hero who returned Charctus into the imperial fold' sounded nice in his head.

As they walked along they came by a group of Tallarn soldiers, distinguished from his own cadian troops by their kaki uniforms and the tone of their skin. Being a few shades darker than his own. He offered them to come with them and eat but they declined, explaining that they where just heading from the mess and had already eaten. They said that they had an upcoming exercise. Nods where exchanged and the cadians continued towards the mess.

As they entered the mess hall they found it stuffed with eating soldiers, as was expected around this time. But even with it densely packed he still managed to find an empty table for him and his squad. They took their rations of inedible sludge and sat down.

"Hey sarge, you know why the higher ups decided to separate the regiments from each other?" One of the soldiers from another table asked in between shoving the grey paste they called food in his mouth and chewing

"I mean there is enough room on this ship alone to house over 20 regiments worth of troops but they still put the other regiments on a different ship. Isn't that strange?" The rest of his squad nodded in agreement. "Yeah, I heard it had something to doo with the other regiments, something about them being around being bad fore morale" he explained. "The other regiments are regiments of the infamous 'death korps of Krieg" another trooper answered. That statement only drew more eyes and ears towards him. "We are going to fight alongside the death korps?!" One solder asked with a concerned look on his face.

Quiet mumblings started to spread through the hall, no one was eating anymore. "wait, what do you mean with ' the death korps are here?" Someone from Williams squad asked. He turned to look who had asked, it was Micky. He was a fresh recruit from Cadia who only just joined the regiment as they where to depart and got assigned to his squad. As a green recruit he would probably never have heard of other regiments from other worlds. Of course he would be confused when it came to of world regiments.

"Have you never heard of the death korps boy?" One soldier from another table asked. He had a more aged and grizzled look on his face. "probably be a veteran of some kind" Williams thought.

"No" responded Micky and shook his head.

"Son, the men of krieg are probably some of the more famous soldiers out there in the galaxy. Right next to us, the Cadian shock troops." He took a sip from his mug before going on."They are said to be the most stubborn soldiers out there, they never retreat and never surrender, usually fighting to the death against any odds."

"So shouldn't we be happy that we have them by our side for the war?" Mickys face clearly showed his confusion." Aren't those good things to have on your side?" "No, you shouldn't be happy about having those guys with you. They are suicidal idiots who only bring extremely high casualties for everyone involved with them to the battle field" the veteran shoot back.

Micky probably felt stupid for asking and only replied with a distant "oh, okay" before turning back to his plate. It's content having turned cold already. An awkward silence settled in the hall and everybody turned back to the food in front of them.

The rest of the dinner was silent for the most part with some people trying to strike up conversations here and there to lighten the mood. But realizations for what the war would hold in store for them where sinking in and keeping the mood down.

* * *

All of the regimental commanders had been called to his office to go through the plans for the coming war by Marhsal 198-254. The office was as spartan as any office could be. No decorations or ornamentation hung on the walls. No marks of honor or medals either. This was a bit of a surprise to the Cadian and Tallarn officers who had decorated their quarters as much as possible to show of all of their achievements and honors. Some even began to think that the Marshal hadn't even earned any such things and was a complete newcomer to the role of officer. None of them knew that such blatant boasting of ones own achievements was looked down on by the people of Krieg and considered inappropriate for officers. Doing ones duty was expected and no medals where handed out as rewards.

The final strategy chosen for the war had one of the Tallarn tank regiments, the 198th, along with the 41st Krieg tank regiment deploy first at an alternate landing site far to the east from the actual landing side. Their mission would be to launch armored assaults against the closest hive and draw the enemy's attention away from the actual landing site, giving the rest of the Army time to deploy and set up a base of operations from where the campaign could be launched.

Losses to the Tank regiments where expected to be high but that was deemed acceptable by Marshal 198-254 as their deaths would serve to minimize the resistance against the rest of the army as it was deploying and setting up. This plan found much opposition from the Commanders of the 198th who where not ready to send their troops to die so recklessly for so little.

Amongst the most vocal officers of the 198th was colonel Fiora Ah'mulad, she was in command of the regiment and she was not happy about having to act as bait for the enemy to concentrate on whilst everyone else got away scot free.

She slammed her fist down on the desk of the marshal in anger and clenched her teeth. The clinging of her countless medals on her chest, clinging against each other thanks to her sudden movement, filled the room. Her eyes where directed towards the person who was telling her to send her brave men to their deaths in suicidal attacks.

No, not man. This thing in front of her could no longer be considered a person, with his face hidden behind that infuriating rebreather with the the the cold glass eye pieces that met her stare showing no hesitation to se her and her men to their deaths. This man no longer held the right to be considered a man in her eyes.

She closed her eyes and took a deep breath to calm herself. Softening up the grip of her clenched fist and opened her eyes again. "Why must it be my regiment that has to be sent out against the enemy on such a suicide mission. Why can't it just be your damned regiments who are sent out on this mission. You guys always seem so eager to die so why not let your own regiments have a go at it" she tried to argue but it was like talking to a deaf Mukaali.

"Neither the 81st or the 224th line korps include any other tank regiments and neither dose the Cadian detachment" came the blunt reply, muffled by the mask on the marshals face but clearly audible. "Your Armoured force was chosen because it was one of the only 2 other regiments available that are able to deal enough damage to the enemy whilst withstanding great amounts of punishment. Sending one regiment alone also wouldn't suffice for the mission so two had to be chosen. For the matter of why 'your' regiment was chosen, it is simple. Your regiment is bigger and more capable than the 232nd"

She felt her heart sink in her chest a little."But the casualties, won't they be to high and effect our performance in the later stages of the campaign?" She tried again to argue against the decision, hoping that the marshal might change his opinion.

"We have calculated that the estimated casualties that the regiments will be suffering will be within acceptable boundaries and that your regiments won't be reduced under acceptable fighting strength. If you happen to suffer higher casualties then expected then your regiment will be folded into the 232nd" came the dreaded reply, this time from a second Krieg officer standing next to Marshal 198-254, this one clad in the brown great coat of the 41st regiment.

"So that's it? You have calculated that we won't be entirely wiped out and that makes it okay to send us of on a suicide mission?" She just couldn't believe it, how could one see the loss of so many human lives as simple calculations? It boggled her mind.

"Yes it dose. Your frustration is misplaced though, you and your men should be proud that you will be able to sacrifice your lives to the emperor and this campaign. Colonel 41 of the 41st even volunteered his regiment to lead the mission " Marshal 198-254 replied whilst motioning towards the colonel before changing the subject to the rest of the campaign. "Of course he volunteered, why wouldn't he volunteer for a suicide mission." Fiora thought.

A holographic map of the northern hemisphere of the planet came up. Showing of the 2 hive cities of the world and the location for where the landing zone would be. One of the marshals aids used a small staff to point at the landing zone which showed up as a red dot on the map. From there he drew lines across the map showing the planned movements of each regiment from the landing zone out towards the hives.

"After the decoy force has bought us the time to set up the rest of our forces they will head back to the landing zone and rendezvous with us" Explained the marshal whilst his aid drew lines on the map in accordance with what he said. "

From there our forces will be split into two forces, each one will focus on one hive city. The 81st line Korps along with the Cadian 67th infantry regiment will head towards the Eastern hive and surround it" The aid drew one red line from the landing zone and around one of the hives.

"Whilst at the same time the 244th line korps along with the Cadian 173rd infantry regiment and the Tallarn regiments will head towards the western hive and surround it as well" the aid drew another red line mirroring the first one from the LZ and around the other hive.

"This should effectively cut of each hive from the other, eliminating the possession of the hives sending support to and from and making it possible for our forces to keep the enemy pinned down in the same location whilst artilery can be moved in to finish the campaign swiftly" the aid put the staff down, signaling that the briefing was over.

With that each one of the regimental commanders made their leave one after the other until all of them had left. The hall fell into silence except for the the sounds of the marshals aids and servitors who where clearing away all of the equipment to later be put up in the HQ on the planet surface.

* * *

2 hours had passed since the imperial fleet had re entered real space in the outskirts of the system and was detected by augur scans from Hive Stahrau. The acting governor of the hive had immediately called for an emergency meeting with all of the high ranking officials and commanders of the PDF to discuss the plans for the hives defenses.

Right now all of them where gathered in the senate, arguing with each other over what would be the best course of action from now on. The representatives for the Ministorium where arguing that it would be best to show the imperial fleet their purity and devotion to the emperor and by doing so convince them not to launch an invasion of the planet. All the while the commanders of the PDF where trying to convince the priests of the Ministorum hat the best option was to pull back all of their forces into the hives and wait for the imperial army to land and then strike whilst they where still deploying. Hoping that that would be enough to break the imperial forces early on and avoid a costly war of attrition against overwhelming odds.

After much back and forth and with neither side willing to go along with the others proposition the acting governor had to step in and make the decision. 05:30 the next day the decision had been made. The Governor had decided that the plan of the PDF was the better of the two. He issued a decree that martial law was now in effect across the entire world and that immediate conscription of all able bodied should begin immediately.

The hives went on total lockdown. A mandatory curfew was instated and no one was allowed outside after 6 PM. Arbites started to patrol the streets and skyways regularly and anybody found outside their designated areas or after curfew faced severe punishment. PDF units, so called "Conscription squads", started to go out into the hives and took every young, able bodied man they could get. Families where broken apart as fathers and sons suddenly had to leave after soldiers showed up at their doors.

Sams father and mother had been lucky so far and had been able to prepare for the possibility of a conscription squad showing up. They had gathered up a few make shift weapons made out of wrenches and pipes and started to block the doe at night. But it was all in futility. As the soldiers had appeared in front of their door they had simply shot the lock with their autoguns and then kicked their way through the barricade.

Sams mother screamed with tears streaming down her face as the soldiers knocked him and his father down and grabbed them. "NO! Not my boy! Please, anything but my boy!" She cried out as one soldier held her down to the floor with rough hands whilst Sam and his father where being dragged out of the small apartment. "Where sorry mam but we got orders to collect all men who are able to fight. That includes these two." The one pushing her down tried, and failed, to calm the sobbing women down. "But why my son! He is just a kid, not even 17 yet!" She tried desperately to free herself whilst Sam and his dad struggled against the soldiers dragging them of. "Darling! Don't worry, we will return before you can even notice that we where gone. I promise! I Promise that we will return alive and safe, I will keep Sam safe!" His father cried out as the soldiers forced them out into the hallway and down the stairs.

They where pushed down the stairs and into the street below where a truck was waiting for them. Sam could make out the faces of many people that he knew in the back of the truck. Many of them where his friends. He could se that many of them where either crying or sending resentful glares at their captors. One of the troopers knocked on the floor of the truck with the but of his gun. "Hop hop! Onto the truck, we don't have all night!" He barked at them. Sam jumped on first, squeezing in between two people already sitting down on one of the benches. His father went after him but thanks to there not being any more seats left he had to sit on the floor. When they had all sat down the back hatch of the truck swung shut and the truck started moving.

Due to the lack of any light source in the back of the truck they all sat there in complete darkness as they where taken of to who knows where. The compartment shook violently as they went over a bump on the road. Someone at the back was mumbling curses at the soldiers whilst some other started to feverishly pray to the God Emperor to protect them or save them. Sam was in no better condition. Scared of what would await him and his father, he also clutched his hands and started praying for the Emperor to protect them.

* * *

Sorry for the slow updates. I accidentaly deleted the chapter i was working on and i realised that i had to redoo this chapter as well, pluss life has been geting in the way of me writing so...

(hope you like it and feel free to give critisism about my writing and about the story so far)


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter:3

The drive through the dark hive was long and exhausting for the passengers of the truck. Sam wanted to sleep so badly but the bucking truck wouldn't let him. So the only thing left for him to do was just to sit there and wait for the eventual arrival at their destination. The drive was slow, even with the streets cleared thanks to the curfew. The maze of roads was difficult to maneuver even without all of the traffic. After what felt like an eternity to Sam the ruck came to a sudden stop without any warning. The passengers where thrown to the front of the truck by the sudden stop but apart from a few swear words being uttered no one seemed to want to complain.

The back hatch was pulled open and the light of the street Illuminators shone into the compartment. The head of one of the soldiers appeared in the light, followed by a few others. They where all armed with stun batons and some even had guns. The leader of the group hit the floor of the compartment with his baton violently "Out! Hopp Hopp!" He shouted at them.

Not wanting to instigate further aggression the passengers quickly followed his orders and jumped out of the truck one after the other where they where lined up behind the truck by the other soldiers. Once they had all jumped out, the hatch was slammed shut and the truck moved away again, disappearing behind a hab block. Sam and the others looked around to see where they where but couldn't recognize the area. From the look of the surroundings they where deep in the interior of the hive now. And at least a few levels higher then where they had started.

The surroundings where still made up of the same clusters of hab blocks surrounding the higher spires that stretched up into the upper hive but the streets seemed much cleaner. There where also no manufactorums belching smoke and gases to bee seen like in the lower levels. In fact, Sam could even make out a few cathedrals in the distance. Mighty gothic spires stood tall and proud. Emblazoned with holy symbols and stained glass windows. At the sight of those majestic symbols of worship Sam quickly muttered a prayer and made the sign of the Aquilla over his chest.

But before he could marvel at their sight any more the soldiers pushed them in the other direction with their batons and rifle buts. "Move along, keep close and do as we say!" One of them shouted. In the direction where they where being marched at stood what could only be presumed to be one of the PDFs fortress bastions that stood vigil over the upper parts of the hive. The thick ferrocrete walls stretched high up into the sky and where dotted with spotlights and heavy weapons mounted on turrets.

As they can closer one could make out even more wall mounted weapons systems. Heavy bolsters and heavy stubbers dotted the walls and where constantly searching for targets. The closest ones quickly turned towards them and took aim but before they could shoot one of the soldiers signaled something and the guns turned away again. Before they could freeze up at the sight of the guns pointing at them the soldiers continued to push them along right up to a big metal gate. Sam presumed it to be the main gate, judging by its size. The gate was emblazoned with a faded white Aquilla and the letters B165.

One of the soldiers walked up to the gate, there he pushed a button on a wall mounted vox caster and told the operator on the other side to open the gate. Shortly there after the gate started to pull open with the groaning of heavy machinery. Once the gate was fully open they where quickly marched through before it could close again and where lined up behind it.

Once they had been formed up another soldier walked up to them. In the light from the lights mounted on the walls they could see his face and uniform clearly. He had a much older look than the rest of the soldiers and his right eye as well as a substantial part of his cranium had been replaced by bionics. His wrinkled face along with the glaring red lens where his eye should be gave him a menacing appearance. His uniform was also of much better quality. The well tailored uniform along with a god few medals and other decorative elements made him immediately stand out from the loos fitting, worn and used uniforms of the other PDF troops.

"Good evening gentlemen! My name is colonel Robert Sataul Warren and from now on you will be serving under my command." He shouted with a raspy voice. "What do you mean 'serve under you'?" The one next to Sam asked in a careful manner. Obviously not wanting to offend the colonel or give the soldiers a reason to brutalize him.

"It means Sweetheart, that from now on you are conscript soldiers in the Charctus PDF and I'm your commanding officer! You will follow my orders, do what I tell you, and only when I tell you to do it. You will ask me permission first if you want to do something. Need to go to the toilet? You ask me for permission first! Want to sit down? Only when I say you can! You want to leave? Too bad!..." Sam groaned internally as the colonel continued on how things where going to be from now on. Apparently there was going to be a war soon, and they had been conscripted to fight that war.

After the colonel finished shouting the group immediately replied with loud complaints. "You can't just abduct us from the street and tell us to fight in your war!" The one next to Sam shouted again. "I have a Family at Home, i have to return to them before something happens!" Another one bellowed out.

"Silence!" One of the solders called out. "I won't have any of your complaints! You will receive basic training as soldiers and then be sent out to bolster the defenses of the hive. Those that do not comply with orders will be severely punished and summarily executed if necessary." Those words immediately quieted them down. And as to prove his point one of the soldiers went up to one of them and struck him right in the head with his baton, making him topple over unconscious.

After that the colonel explained the details of what their days as trainees where going to look like. They would receive training for one month before they would be deployed to the front lines as real soldiers. Alone that made them nervous. Only one month before their war would begin, that wasn't much time at all. After that explanation they where lead to their new quarters.

One room for all of them together. Cramped together and on Tom of each other in small bunks and with each a small locker for their belongings. That nights no one slept well, the beds where uncomfortable and the rooms quickly got very hot thanks to the people cramped inside, plus the fact that no one was quite able to grasp that they only had a month of peace left before they would need to fight. Eventually the warm embrace of sleep came to all of them, but still it was a hard first night.

The following days the mood lightened somewhat throughout the group. They learned to push your worries to the back of your mind and just to do what you where told to do. You had to or else you got beaten by the guards. The training also wasn't that hard, for the most part it was just extremely stressful. You had to learn how to use and operate your weapons in a short span of time. How to properly maintain your weapons and equipment without offending the machine spirits of either. You had to learn the ranking structure of the pdf and be able to recognize each rank without hesitation or doubt, alone that made San want to pull his hair out and scream.

Each and every one of them had to be able to understand certain commands and hand signs. For example what sign meant that you should outflank the enemy, the sign for throwing your grenade, the sign to take cover and manny other. It was truly exhausting to not only learn them but to also be able to remember each and every one in a stressful situation like being shot at. And so the training continued, rushing one part of being a soldier after the other.

Now a few weeks later, they had become what could be considered a platoon of somewhat capable soldiers, not the rag tag group that they had been when they had arrived. They where still far far away from capable soldiers but they could shoot and theoretically hold a trenchline, wich was all they where really expected to do. Manny still had a lot of complaints about the training and the living conditions but none of those complains got voiced in the open or when guards where around.

By now they had learned how to march in formation, how to properly handle and maintain their autoguns, how to act as a squad in combat, who was to do what and who was in charge. They had also starten forming bonds with each other. Helping each other during training, telling jokes during off time and covering each other's guard duties when one of them couldn't go. They where Sams new family. He still held on to the thought of returning home with his dad to mom but that seemed somewhat distant to him. Rather, he thought that by fighting and defending his home he would help her much more.

Private Thomson was probably the one he was closest with. He was a big and burly man, easily a head taller than him. He had come to the fort only a few days later than Sam but he came from the same district of the hive as he so they quickly bonded over that. He had told Sam that he was 19 but he looked older than that. Greasy black hair covered his head and stubbles of black hair dotted his face .They shared a bunk together, sat with each other in the mess hall and where both in the same squad. Of course he wasn't the only friend that Sam had made. There was also private Lucie, she was the only girl in the whole group and the center of much of the others attention because of it. She was innocent and cute looking with her blonde hair and red cheeks. That was of course until you saw what she could do with her bayonet. Once she had apparently cut the finger of one of the guys when ha had tried to force himself onto her. She was also the girl Sam had a crush for, but he never had the courage to go up and tell her about his feelings.

Sam was also close with one private Robett. His family was from the other hive so his complexion was a bit different then the rest of them and his accent was a bit different. His hair was a dark brown with a slender face and green eyes. He was always a source of entertainment for the rest of them with his stories about the other hive and the people there. Apparently the people of the second hive loved to drink really strong liquor and get really drunk everyday around 7pm and that they only prayed twice a day instead of the 3 times that was usual in this hive. 'What strange people' where Sams thoughts.

But as the weeks passed by and the ending of their training came closer the tensions started to pick up again. One recruit from the other group was caught trying to defect from the pdf and was later on Court martialed and executed in front of all of them to show the consequences of running away. Seeing someone getting hung was pretty shocking for all of them and the mood quickly soured after that. Luckily no more people tried to escape.

And so it was that the dreaded day of their departure came. They where all gathered up on the training ground one last time and participated in one last prayer to the Emperor together in their full kit and with all of their equipment. The chaplain of the fort made his way through the ranks of recruits swinging a smoking flail filled with incense and read loudly out of the Lecticio Diginitatus. Blessing their souls in the name of the God Emperor and wishing them strength and courage to defend this world in the name of the Emperor and the Imperium.

After that they where marched out of the gates they had once entered a months ago as forced conscripts. But this time they where not the fresh recruits they had once been, now they where soldiers of the PDF and as ready for the coming hardships as they could be after so short a training. They where divided up again into two groups and assigned a transport vehicle for each group. A locally produced variant of APC based on the chimera chassis called the Orion. It featuring a larger open topped crew compartment, capable of holding 20 men instead of the usual 12, at the price of not having a turret and instead only featuring a pintle mounted heavy stubber and a hull mounted Heavy Bolter for armaments.

They where sat down in the cramped compartment at the back tightly squeezed together and then it was of to some fort or bastion that they had newer even heard of. The engines kicked in and the flor of the crew compartment started to vibrate to the powerful engines that propelled the vehicles onward with a surprising speed. Talking was almost impossible for anybody who didn't want to shout their lungs out over the deafening roars of the engines. And so they sat there tightly squeezed and silent staring at the greasy white interior of the Orion's crew compartment as they where sent of into god only knows what would await them.

* * *

One of the ships that had arrived together with the fleet had quickly separated itself from the rest of the fleet and rushed onwards towards the planet. A behemoth of steel as black as the void which surrounded it. It's dark hull only broken up by the Golden Aquilla on its prow and the images of a great angel, with wings of silver and clad in a black robe holding a sword, dotting it's superstructure. It was the battle barge 'Ihra Dominato Ferro' of the Steel Angels chapter. The journey from the outskirts of the system to her destination had taken the better part of a month. Time that her detachment of Battle brothers took to prepare themselves.

Brother captain Ihro'nadai had taken his time to go over the battle plan countless times. Calculating every possibilities of a failure and taking every precaution he could come up with. He leaned over the holo table projecting an image of the surface of the planet as the augery scans of the Ihra Dominato Ferro had shown it. His face and golden armour basked in the green light from the projection, drawing strong contrasts of light and shadow where the green light couldn't reach on his face and armour. Around him stood his councils and lieutenants. Foremost amongst them brother chaplain Tazaro. In his bright silver armour of the chapters recusiam he stood in strong contrast to the others with their black armour.

His scull faced helmet stared at Ihro'nadai, the bright red eyes seemingly judging his every breath. In truth he was only looking at him, but thanks to the shape of the helmet the look seemed more malicious than intended. "We are to strike at 3 different installations simultaneously via drop pods and thunderhawks and strike before the enemy has time to react and mount any sufficient kind of Defence. After we have struck and destroyed the defence installations the thunderhawks are to pass by again and pick up the company and bring them back aboard before we depart. " the chaplain turned his head back towards the projection where markers where appearing corresponding with what the captain had said. "The largest of the installations to the south will be taken care of by myself and my terminator honor guard along with assault Marines whilst the 2nd and 3rd installation will fall to the companies dreadnoughts and armored elements to deal with"

He paused for a moment but after not hearing any objections about the plan he continued. "This is supposed to only be a lightning strike to disable the orbital defenses so each element of the company will only have a short time to finish its objective before we are departing again. Don't waste time engaging unnecessary opponents and move with swiftness. That is all"

After the briefing was over and most of the Astartes officers had left Ihro'nadai turned towards the chaplain. His golden gauntlets griping the chaplains shoulder pauldrons. "I sense that this mission will be a Great challenge to the 2nd company and I have discussed the matter with the other commanders. We came to the conclusion that it is time to wake Brother Nerusius from his slumber" The chaplain almost stumbled backwards at that statement. His shock visible even with the helmet on. "But he hasn't been woken in over a thousand years, are you shure that the such an engagement is really worthy of his presence?" The captain let out a sigh and let go of the chaplain. "That is why I have now come to you brother. No one in the entire chapter except the High chaplain of the 1st company is more qualified to assess this matter than you" "I know of my status, you need not remind me brother. But why is it that you wish for his awakening now?"

Ihro'nadai turned away from the chaplain, looking out of the large mosaic window in front of him. The light from the local star reflecting in a myriad of colors through the glass. "We have received word about our mission after this matter is dealt with from the Chapter Master himself. He has summoned the entire chapter to stand agains a large ork waagh in the neighboring sector. It appears to be one of the largest this Segmentum has seen in the past millennia. I thought it a good idea to get our brothers blood up once in a minor skirmish before we head out to meet the xenos horde." The chaplain stepped up next to him. Sharing the view out of the window out towards the star. Letting out a sigh he turned towards the captain "If it is your wish to se him awoken then I will of course assist the Tech Marines in rising him from his hibernation. I will head out towards the armory immediately" with that the chaplain left the hall as well. Leaving the Captain alone to resume his task of leading the preparations for the operation.

* * *

The armory of the Ihra Dominato Ferro was bristling with activity. Tech priests and Tach marines where working alongside servitors and chapter serfs on preparing the myriad of war mashines of the company for war. Tazaro made his way through the hall, passing by land raiders, rhinos and other vehicles before coming before a great gate. In front of it stood the companies senior Tech marines waiting for him. "Greetings brothers" "Greetings Chaplain" came the response from the Tech marine closest to him. His voice dark and raspy mixed with the static from the vox speaker that replaced his mouth. "The Captain wishes for us to awaken brother Nerusius and we have no time to spare so let the awakening process begin" the Tech marines nodded and the gate started to swing open.

Behind the gate the room was mostly dark except for a few illumination orbs hanging from the ceiling an a number of candles dotting the walls. The room was filled with a strong smell of machine oils and holy incenses. Slowly the humming of a reactor came about and the light from the orbs increased until most of the hall was basked in light. The light revealing the holy sarcophaguses of the company dreadnoughts, 6 of them in total. Fallen heroes of the chapter destined to live on and fight even beyond their deaths. They where some of the greatest treasures of the entire chapter. Their golden sarcophaguses covered in scriptures and battle honors.

But all the way at the far side of the hall was the chapters greatest treasure. Treasured even higher than all of the chapters dreadnoughts combined. It stood almost twice the height of any other dreadnought, it's hull thicker than that of any of the chapters vehicles and its age as great as the Imperium of man itself. It was a relic from the great crusade itself and passed down through the chapter from millennia. It was one of the few of its kin still remaining to this day in the Imperium. It was the chapters one and only Leviathan pattern dreadnought. It was truly a relic of relics. It's massive frame covered in battle honors, inscriptions and other decorative details. Inside the sarcophagus the Prior Chapter Master Peliel Kistus was would be the time for his first awakening in a thousand years.

The awakening was a long and extremely taxing endeavor. Countless rights of appeasement had to be performed to make sure that the ancient machine spirits would not be agitated or possibly even worse. The Tech marines and the Tazaro worked for many hours with no pause. Praying, offering up tokens of appeasement and applying holy oil to every single part of the ancient venerable war machines. But finally after a lengthy ritual all of their venerable brothers had been awoken, the hall was filled by the humming of ancient engines carrying these venerable warriors to battle.

From there on it went quickly, the rest of the company had already finished its preparations and stood ready to be deployed. And so the dreadnought where informed of their duties in the coming battle. The Tech marines equipped them accordingly with what they would be doing. Heavy bolsters and plasma cannon where replaced with flame cannons and inferno cannons and storm bolters with heavy flamer. The Leviathan dreadnought brother Nerusius was armed with twin heavy flamers and a pair of siege drills for his arms.

After hours of preparations and hard work the ship fell silent. No Astartes where walking along the corridors anymore and the armory was quiet and empty save for a few serfs and servitors. All of the battle brothers where silently awaiting the time for their drop. Either strapped inside of drop pods or sitting inside of thunderhawks. Special Thunderhawk transports where awaiting the signal to carry the tanks of the company down towards the surface. Captain Ihro'nadai and his terminator elite bodyguard where waiting inside of the ships teleportarium. He was wearing his golden suite of Cataphractii Termin armour whilst his bodyguards where equipped with indomitus patter armour.

All of them where awaiting the signal to launch down to the surface. Seconds ticked by and the tension became so thick in the air that one could grip it and hold it with ones hands. After about 10 seconds of eerie silence the red light switched to green and only a fraction of a second later the pods had left their launch tubes. A sudden violent shook followed by silence as the pods left the ship and fell through the vacuum of space. As the pods entered the atmosphere the silence was replaced by a bone shaking rattling as the pods left long red streaks of fire behind them in the air. As the pods sailed through the air the Thunderhawks also left their launch pads and speed towards the surface.

It all happened so quick that the crews of the scanners who where surveilling the airspace had almost no time to react. One second there was nothing on the monitors, then suddenly the monitors became filled with unidentified readings quickly descending to the surface right on top of them. The observers where shocked. No human being could possibly hope to survive a descent that quick. Vox Receivers started ringing in the Governors office immediately and triple-A Fire was quickly aimed up into the sky. But even with the airspace above the orbital defense silos being filled with high caliber fire it was like trying to hit a fly with a machine gun. Almost none of the shoots hit and those that did only managed to knock some of the objects somewhat off corse. Before anybody could do anything the falling abject hit the ground with loud booms throwing huge plumes of dirt and sand into the air.

* * *

Now things are speeding up a bit. Hope you like the chapter and don't hate me too much for the tease at the end. Next chapter you will maybe even get to se how a company of space marines handle some pdf troops in bunkers. (Read instead: "It will be a fucking blood bath!")

If you have any thoughts or suggestions to me then please leave a comment. I hope to get better att writing and storytelling so please don't hold back. I doo have a vague outline for how the war will go so if your suggestions conflict with my plans then it might not happen but I will try to listen to what you want.

See you next time!


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter 4

Hi, im back now with another chapter.

If you are wondering why it took me so long then i will have to admitt that i had no idea of how i wanted to write this chapter, or the whole battle to take out the orbital defence lasers in general. I spent quite some time rewriting different parts and settled on how it turned out in the end.

Hope you like it!

* * *

After the pod left the ship the rattling compartment became dead quiet. The signal lights basked the whole interior in a red glow. Aged white plates as well as countless different cables ran along the interior walls and wear and tear could be seen on every panel and on every surface. Every chip and scratch standing testimony to the crafts long and venerable service with the 2nd company.

Inside of their harnesses stood 10 armored figures. Their Armour painted black and their pauldrons left in unpainted silver. The chapter badge was displayed on the left pauldron. The angel clad in a dark robe wielding a great blade stood in a red circle. "The first Angel" as the chaplains named him. They where the marines of assault squad Leonas of the 2nd company of the steel angels chapter.

As the seconds ticked by they checked their weapons one last time. Making sure that the bolt pistols and chainswords wouldn't fail them before signaling back to Brother Leonas , his golden faceplate marking him out as the squad sergeant. One after the other their signals popped up on his display. They where all ready.

A counter popped up before his eyes, counting down the seconds till impact. He blinked it away and closed his eyes, muttering a final prayer to the Emperor and going over the plan once more in his head before it would be to late. They would be dropped directly onto the laser silo, avoiding the surrounding defensive lines and unnecessary casualties in the process. Once deployed they where to enter the complex and use melta charges to destroy the firing mechanism of the laser battery and kill everybody inside to render it inoperable.

It was a good plan Leonas thought, though he did quite like the idea of fighting through the surrounding defenses. But the captain had decided that it would take to much time to go through the defenses as they already had a limited time frame to act on before they would depart.

After a short while the vibrations in his feet became worse and he was dragged back from his internal thoughts as the whole pod stated to rattle and shake violently. His heads up display informing him that they had entered the atmosphere.

He felt the vibrations carry over to his legs and up his body until he as well was rattling in his harness. The shaking grew more and more intense as the seconds till impact trickled by. The explosions from incoming AA fire barely audible over the roaring descent of the pod.

The counter popped up again. 10, 9, 8… He closed his eyes and took a deep breath. 3, 2, 1. The whole pod jerked to a violent stop as a loud thud was heard from outside.

The force behind the sudden stop would have completely crushed any normal humans internal organs and shattered all the bones in their legs. But they where no normal humans, they where Astartes.

As the harnesses opened up and released them and the light inside the pod turned green the bolts holding the large doors closed exploded. The large hatches fell with a loud clank allowing the marines to move out of the compartment. The floor plating trembled under the heavy footfalls of the space marines as they rushed out into the dust clouds that had been kicked up by the violent landing.

The helmets scanners of Leonas had already penetrated the whirling dust as he exited and marked out all enemy troops hidden behind the smoke screen as red outlines that appeared before his eyes. He didn't even have to aim at the disoriented soldiers as the Armour locked on to them automatically as he brought the bolt pistol up. The only thing left for him to do was to pull the trigger.

The bolt pistol barked and kicked in his grip as round after round flew out of the dust and soldier after solder simply exploded into a shower of gore.

Leonas thumbed the activation rune on the handle of his blade as he leapt out of the cloud and in amongst the terrified solder. The engine roared to life as he hit the ground and the teeth began to spin, hungry for blood. The troopers in front of him stumbled away from him, desperate to get away from the hulking behemoth that had landed in amongst them.

His lips curled up into a predatory grin as he lunged forward and started to cut the soldiers to pieces.

The roaring engine growling like a beast as it's teeth chewed the squishy bodies of humans to bits. If not for his bulky Armour then the brutal slaughter could have been considered an elegant dance. His armours servos wined as he whirled around with blade in hand and bolt pistol barking at point blank range. Bodies ripped to bloody pieces fell all around him.

He started to look for more victims in sight the moment the last soldier fell but as more and more drop pods smashed down and disgorged their cargo onto the fortress walls or behind them there was no need to. Instead he turned back to to the rest of his squad, spread out over the walkways and ramparts and covered in the guts of the bodies that lay at their feets.

He turned towards brother Sehkien who stood closest to him "Brother, Place the beacon so that we can move on".The marine nodded and crouched down behind him before taking out a metal device that had been magnetically locked to his back.

"The Thunderhawks should be arriving about now as well so with this all forces should be successfully deployed" As if on cue the roars of engines could be heard from the skies as his brother placed down the beacon.

Turning his head upwards he could, through the magnifying view of the helmet lenses, see a number of black shapes breaking out of the clouds and diving towards them. Smoke trails raced ahead from under the gunships wings towards the surface and exploded as they struck enemy emplacements in the distance. The sight of enemy bunkers and trenshes being turned into fiery infernos was a sight of true beauty to him as he curled his lips into a grin.

The surprise of the sudden appearance of the gunships was obvious as the soldiers manning the walls scrambled to turn their weapons up to the sky in an attempt to intercept the new arrivals. But with doing so they forgot about the marines that they shared the walls with who immediately took the opportunity and rushed at the now defenses solders.

Leonas is watched as the crew of a flak turret only managed to scream as they realized their mistake and where ripped apart by his squad mates.

"Brother! The beacon is set and transmitting." He turned his head back at sehkien as he got up and moved away from the transmitting teleport homer.

The device started to emit beeping sounds as warning lights turned on. Shortly after, their visions where filled by a blinding white light followed by a hissing sound and the creaking of metal plates shortly after.

As the light faded as quickly as it had appeared it left behind five new shapes that had previously not been there. The hulking forms of the Captain and his retinue all clad in their golden Terminator armor had evidently been to heavy for the platform they stood on an had created buckles under their feet.

Leonas quickly bowed down as the captain turned towards him, the rest of his squad quickly followed suit and went down on their knees as well. "My lord, all of our forces have successfully deployed and no casualties have been reported." He reported the situation to the captain as the Thunderhawks also opened their front ramps and disgorged their passengers as they passed by overhead.

"Continue as planed and move in to the interior of the facility after you have cleared out the enemies outside. I and my retinue shall move on directly to the interior and lead the charge from now on." As he finished talking the captain turned away and started moving on to the gates to the interior of the silo. The metal plating on the floor shook with his each lumbering step of the terminators.

They quickly got up again as the captain had turned away and immediately set of down the ramparts and towards the gates. Racing over the open with great strides as enemy weapons fire ricocheted of their thick plate.

The intensity of the enemy fire increased as the marines closed in on the huge steel gate. Pillboxes to the left and right of the gate spewing forth a hail of heavy bolter and autocannon fire in a desperate attempt to fend them of as sentinels armed with missile launchers tried to target them.

Leonas shoulder got pushed back as a round from a autocannon hit him, it felt like being struck by a sledge hammer and made him nearly lose balance in the middle of a stride.

Reacting in a split second he immediately regained his balance and continued on. Gritting his teeth he decided to avoid more fire from the autocannon as he didn't want to push his luck to much.

Shortly after, a rocket shot by his shoulder, nearly missing him and instead hitting another marine behind him who was sent flying with a big hole in his chest and an arm missing.

Leonas immediately locked on to the sentinel that had fired the missile with bloodshot eyes. A desire to avenge his fallen brother washing over him as he bared his teeth underneath the helmet in a snarl of anger.

The poor pilot didn't even have a chance to react as Leonas leapt up to the chassis of the walker in a mad fury before ripping the hatch open with his bare hands. The pilot shot a horrified glance at him as his blade lunged forward and cut the head of the pilot of.

The walker collapsed behind him as he jumped down, the head of the pilot still in his hand as he held it up in a triumphant gesture. "For the Emperor!" The vox speakers turned his shout into an angry snarl.

By now the small defensive perimeter around the gate had completely collapsed as the few surviving soldiers stumbled backwards pleading for their lives. The pill boxes had also stoped firing as two terminators stomped up to them before shattering the permacrete structures with a few swings from their powerfists. The cries of wounded men came from the ruble as permacrete fragments had showered and ripped into the flesh of the men inside.

The surviving soldier also got taken care of as marines came forward and grabbed them by their throats before relieving their heads from their shoulders with their blades. Limp bodies hitting the floor as the marines fastened the heads to their armor as trophies to the emperor.

The atmosphere around them became quiet as the shouting and the gunfire died down in the distance as well. "Brothers prepare yourselves for the next phase in the mission. We don't know what is behind these gates, it could be anything from a few scared mortals to an open hangar filled with overlapping fields of heavy weapons fire. Move with the speed of the Great Angel once you enter."

As the captain finished talking over the vox, one Terminator from his retinue moved up to the gate. The engine of his chainfist roaring to life and the teeth began to spin as he started to grind a hole into the metal plates of the gate. The sparks flying in every direction where so bright that his Armour had to tone down the lenses to se normally.

Leonas tightened his grip on the handle of his chainsword and started to mumble litanies under his breath. "Move with the swiftness of the angel for he guides us. Strike the enemy down as once the Emperor struck the arch-traitor Horus. Purge the enemy with your blade for only through his demise can your soul be cleansed of sin. Have faith in the Emperor for he is the one true god of mankind."

He stopped reciting the litanies as the grinding noise from the chainfist died down. The Terminator was finished with cutting the hole into the metal. Shifting his stance to be ready to enter immediately once the hole was open he watched as the terminator moved to the side to let another step forward. This one armed with a storm shield and a thunderhammer. He took one final breath and tensed up, muscles ready to explode into motion, as the Terminator swung the hammer at the cut out piece of the gate and sent it flying into the interior with one blow.

The second the gate had been breached and the first Terminator had entered a new hail of gun fire came raining down. The illuminating flashes of gunfire lit the whole hall behind the gates up in an orange light.

Luckily for Leonas and the rest of the marines outside the Terminators entered first and took all of the enemy gunfire head on. They would simply have been shot to pieces by the absurd hail of high caliber shells, even in their power armor, but the Terminator Armor was able to absorb even this punishment and keep on going.

The second the last of the terminators had entered Leonas jumped at the whole to get in as quickly as possible. As he entered his eye lenses adjusted to the light and he could make out the scene behind the gate. It was a massive corridor leading deep into the silos interior. The walls where lined with gray plates and lines of Illuminators in each corner of the corridor lit up the hallway.

Further down the corridor in front of the lumbering terminators his eye lenses zoomed in to show a makeshift barricade that had been set up out of overturned tables and other improvised materials.

Behind the barricade lined up stood a number of heavy weapons of all types. Stubbers, Heavy bolters, autocannons and even a lascannon all lined the barricade and behind them stood determined though undisciplined looking soldiers shouting orders or firing their weapons.

As he charged up along the corridor in great thundering strides he looked back over his shoulder to see that the rest of the marines the where outside now also had entered and where charging up alongside him.

The terminators where blocking most of the incoming fire but still, the torrent of fire that slipped by the wall of terminators was still tough for the marines behind.

One extremely lucky lascannon shot went by the terminators and struck Leonas right in the elbow joint of the arm holding the bolt pistol, cutting it of completely. His face distorted into a painfull grin at the sudden loss of a limb.

The Armor reacting immediately and started to inject drugs to lessen the pain. He shot out a grunt of pain before feeling the cold needles entering under his skin. ahkrtly after, the pain lessened.

Leonas bit down to ignore the throbbing sensation that the wound left in his arm. But even with the loss of an arm, he didn't stop for one second. His enhanced body and his armor propelling him to superhuman deeds as he continued on down the corridor and pushing through the pain to get to his targets.

The soldiers by now where panicking as their weapons fire seemed to be unable to slow the incoming hulking shapes of the terminators and the assault marines behind them. Their pale faces and wide open eyes combined with their cries of terror filled Leonas with satisfaction.

He took one last step past the Terminators and leapt forward and was in amongst the enemy soldiers. The teeth of his chainsword screamed as they spun and the engine roared.

Ignoring the other soldiers, he had his eyes set for the one who had fired the shot that took his arm. The others would be taken care of by his brothers but this one was his to kill.

The soldier in question must have realized his intent as he stumbled away and set of in a mad dash down the corridors whilst pushing other soldiers in behind him. Without breaking a sweat Leonas cut the unfortunate souls apart that the fleeing soldier had pushed in the way in a futile attempt to slow him down.

Finding amusement in the panicked state that his target was in he decided to toy with him for a moment longer and not catch up to him immediately. Letting him run for his life a little more before taking one lunge ahead and catching up to the soldier in one leap.

The soldier spun around and raised his arms in an attempt to shield himself from the swing of the chainsword but the blade simply ripped through those as well as he was cleaved in two. The bones in his arms giving a satisfying snap as they where ripped apart by the spinning teeth. As the mangled corps fell he turned to look back at the scene behind him.

The barricade hadn't lasted a second once his brothers had closed the distance, only serving as a stepping stones from where the marines could launch themselves into the disoriented and panicking ranks of the defenders.

Some officers made their brave last stands amongst the scores of their dying troops. Most of them only managed to swing their swords wildly at the marines whom elegantly dodged the clumsy swipes and answered in kind with their own blade swings.

One though managed to hit his his target with the swing of his chainsword before he in turn was impaled on a lightning claw. The teeth of the chainsword failing to penetrate the armor only left a gouge in the plate.

As the other marines continued on down the corridor Leonas walked up to and opened a vox Chanel to the marine holding the officer impaled on his claws. The office in question was still miraculously clinging to life as he coughed up more and more blood.

"They are pathetic are they not, brother? Mortal humans… such fragile things." Leonas laughed.

He turned his gaze down at the officer whom answered with a defiant look on his pale face. Blood dribbling down from the wound and turning the purple fatigues a sticky red.

"Look what he is doing Brother. He is staining your gauntlet with his blood." The marine turned his head down to see the blood dripping on the elaborate black gauntlet.

"Yes they are brother sergeant." He answered to Leonas's first statement. "But I somehow can't help but respect this ones fighting spirit. Even now he is fighting us in defiance. It may not be with a blade, but his mind is still fighting us fiercely even as I drain him of his life."

The marine the turned towards Leonas and looked down at his arm. "You should have no right to comment about somebody elses gauntlets seeing as your own has been taken." he joked.

"I will let the Apothecary take a look at it once we are finished with this deploymemt. Untill then i will have them pay me back a thousandfold for taking my arm." Leonas answered as he took a closer look at the wound. The molten ceramite from the heat of the lascannon had cooled down and melded toghether with the burnt flesh.

Their attention was drawn away from the arm as the officers body tensed up and fumbled about with something under his uniforms collar.

With one last last breath he drew out a necklace with a golden aquila hanging from it as he mumbled through a blood filled mouth before he went limp.

"F..for the, cough! cough! Emperor!"

They both stood there in silence as the now dead body slid of the claws and fell on the floor in a splat of blood. Leonas only stood there motionless as he looked at he corpse and tried to understand what had just happened.

They had been told that this wold had turned away from the Emperor. Holy Terra itself even had received an astropathic message originating from this world in which they had renounced the Emperor and the imperium. So why was an officer of the renegade forces of this heretical world calling out the Emperors name in such a way?

He found himself realizing something more, all of the soldiers until now had had Aquila stenciled onto their helmets and sown onto their fatigues. Nowhere had he come by any obvious signs of heresy either, no marks or runes inscribed on any parts of the uniforms or vehicles and no desecration of any symbols of the imperial faith either.

He crushed the thought under his iron discipline before it it could trail of into darker places or lead him to question the just cause of their assistance in the campaign.

"It must have been a last ploy from a dying heretic to try to convince us that they in truth where innocent, even as ample proof of their crimes had been presented." He reasoned with himself in an attempt to explain it.

"They truly must be the gravest of blasphemers as to not only denounce the Emperor but to then also try to convince his avenging angels that they in fact are not heretics but instead innocent!" The anger in his chest swelled up as he fired himself up through his trail of thoughts.

"Once we are back on the Ihra dominato ferro we should seek out the chaplains for council, for now we should inform the Captain of what we witnessed." His brother must have had the same trail of thoughts as him, Leonas realized as he found himself agreeing with the words.

Turning around they left the corps of the officer behind as they set of down the corridor in a sprint to catch up with the rest of the force. Hoping that the captain could make light of the matter.

* * *

Hoped you liked the chapter as it turned out in the end.

If you have any criticism of the writing then please write a review about how i can improve.

If you have any good ideas of how the comming siege will go down then write those as well. If the idea is good and it doesn't conflict with my own plan then who knows, maybe you will recognize your suggestion in the upcoming events.


	5. Chapter 5

Hi there. Its me, and im finaly back with another chapter. Im not going to lie to you, its not that i find it hard to write and to come up with stuff but more like its hard to pull myself together 'to' write something.

Dont worry, this dose not mean that i in some way will discontinue this story now that it is finally getting somewhere where it looks like its aboit to start. No no no no! It just means that you may have to wait sometime for a new chapter whilst im of being distracted by doing boring stuff like painting my 40k miniatures (yes i dont just write about my favorit sci-fi universe but i actualy play it as well)

* * *

Chapter 5

Colonel Fiora let out a sights she finally put the last documents aside. She had almost had no sleep whatsoever over the last days, as she was so busy going over the plans for the first stage of the invasion. Every time she thought she had finally got to the end of the endless pile of matters that needed her attention, another issue came up that needed attending.

The document she had just put away had been another report from the tech adepts working in the workshops, apparently some issues with the transmissions of multiple Leman russes in 8th company had appeared.

She sunk her face into her palms and let out a deep, tired, groan. As silence settled into the office she could hear the distant hum and feel the light vibrations of the engines through the deck plating. "Dam it, I really could use a hot mug of recaf right now." She muttered to herself before her face lit up at the genius of her idea.

She pushed a button on her desk and spoke through the built in vox. "Anjem, I could use a mug of recaf right now, do we have any at hand right now?" After speaking, she let go of the button so that the person on the other side could answer.

The speaker let out a short burst of static as the reply came. "No sir, I don't have any at the ready right now but I will go and make some."

She was about to cut the link there as she had got what she wanted, but her intentions where interrupted as the speakers suddenly burst to life again. "Sir, Colonel 41 of the 41st tank Regiment is here with another officer to meet you, should I let them through?" Anjam's voice sounded just as surprised as she was at their sudden visit.

"Y-Yes, you can let them in." She stumbled on her own words for a short second before collecting herself again. "Dam it, why is he here all of a sudden?" She thought. "And who is with him?"

Before she could ask to get a answer to the second question, the metal door on the other side of her office swung open and the colonel and his partner walked in. The other officer was another Krieg officer, a lieutenant if the insignia on the uniform didn't deceive her.

She mustered them up as they came to a halt before her desk. Both where dressed in the usual trench coat and rebreather she had come to expect from the men of Krieg, even their helmets where still on. But whilst the coat of colonel 41 was a light brown, the coat of the Lieutenant was a dark grey, almost black.

Both of them snapped to attention and formed the sign of the Aquila over their chests before taking a seat, each in one of the chairs opposed to her. She formed the sign of the Aquila in return before straightening up in her own seat.

Now that they where so close to her she could not just look at them but also smell them. Both of their uniforms reeked of chemicals. Grimacing, she forced herself to at least get somewhat used to the smell.

"First of all before you get to your point, could you please remove your damn masks just once when you talk to somebody." She said, voicing one of her discontents with the men opposed to her. "I know you lot newer take your precious 'faces' of, but on tallarn we like to see the men we speak to." She said with air quotations at the word 'Faces'.

Both of them sat there silent for a while, the empty eye lenses glaring at her making her feel slightly uncomfortable. Suddenly, without saying a world, the colonel and the lieutenant both reached up and undid the straps of their helmets before going on and loosening the straps of their masks.

Her satisfaction of having them take their masks off quickly turned to a slight sense of unease as the masks came undone and their faces where revealed. When she would be asked after the campaign what had unsettled her the most during the war then the faces of these two men would definitely be on her list.

Both of their faces where disturbingly pale, almost a bone white from the obvious lack of exposure to any kind of sunlight. A drastic contrast to her own tanned skin from too much exposure to sunlight in the deserts of her distant home. And young, they where both surprisingly young looking. If she would have to hazard a guess then they where both in their late 20ties to early 30ties.

The colonels eyes where a faded blue color whilst the Lieutenants eyes where a glossy gray, like those of animals growing up in captivation, newer knowing the freedom of the outside world. They also sported the same military buzzcut and what short hair they had was colored the same shade of gray.

She immediately noted that the colonels left ear was missing, replaced by wires and cables that snaked out of the side of the skull and in under the uniform. Adding to the collection of scars, the Lieutenant had a big scar snaking over his left eye. An eye that was replaced by a red glaring bionic. He also had a number of smaller cords and cables going up under the flesh and into his head.

All in all, both of them had a disturbing appearance, with or without masks on. But now they where off, and she couldn't just ask them to put it back on just because she didn't like what was underneath. Especially not after just having them taking them of. She let out another sigh.

To her surprise, neither of them showed any sign of noticing her disturbed look after seeing their appearance. "Maybe they are used to people reacting like that whenever they show their faces?" She thought.

She swallowed hard before coming back to the original matter at hand. "So why have you come to me in this sudden meeting? Has something come up?" She went straight to the point.

"The marshal has just informed me that he will be adding 2 independent companies of mechanized Grenadiers to support our diversionary attack. The 21st will be assigned to my regiment whilst the 68th will be placed under the command of your regiment." The colonel said as he handed over a data-slate, which he had held tucked in under his arm.

She felt somewhat relieved by the news, as she now no longer had to worry about not having any support from any boots on the ground. She quickly reached out and grabbed the slate before reading through its contents.

On the screen it showed the exact orders of marshal 198-254. As she scrolled down she came to a short overview of the 68th independent mechanized grenadier company. It was a big company, nearly 10,000 strong. Satisfied with what she read she put the slate back down on the table.

Seeing as she was finished, the colonel continued. "This here is Lieutenant 454, he is the commander of the 68th company." He motioned over to the other Krieg officer sitting next to him. "He will from now on be serving directly under your command, you are to deploy his company wherever you se fit."

With that the Lieutenant stood up and snapped to attention again, followed by a crisp salute to her. His eyes staring at the wall behind her. "I have personally volunteered myself and my company to be the first to be deployed on the surface, you can count on the 68th to support the 198th no matter the cost, sir." He rambled our in a harsh but somewhat empty voice.

"Yes, yes." She motioned for him to sit down again as she answered halfheartedly. To be honest, for him to say that was almost what she was expecting.

She lost her trail of thought however as the Lieutenant refused to sit down and continued to salute her. Somewhat irritated, she repeated herself and signaled for him to sit down again. And again he ignored her and just stood there at attention.

Feeling the situation turning somewhat awkward and her patience run thin she ordered him to sit down with irritation clearly audible in her voice. "Lieutenant! Take your seat, please."

She was left baffled as he immediately went to sit back down in his chair. "Seriously? Was he just trying to get on my nerves or is he really that thick headed?" She muttered under her breath.

"If that is all then you are free to go back to whatever you where doing previously." She waved them both away with one hand. The both of them got up and gave her another salute. "The Emperor protects." They said before the colonel turned towards the door.

The Lieutenant was left standing before her. Turning her head back to him, she said in a irritated tone. "Got something else you want to say Lieutenant?"

"Yes sir! I would like to request a detailed overview of the plans for our assault." She nodded towards him as she waved him away. "Yes yes, I will see to it that you get a detailed report sent to your office. Dismissed!" "Thank you sir!" He snapped another salute before turning to follow the colonel out of the door.

Before the door could swing shut again behind them, Anjem squeezed his way through the opening with a steaming mug of recaf. "Here you go, sir." He said as he placed the mug on her desk. Her face brightened up into a smile as he reached out and placed the mug to her lips.

Feeling the hot liquid running down her throat made her instantly feel better. "Thank you Anjem, you are a life saver." He blushes a little as he smiled back.

"So, what where they here to talk to you about?" He inquired.

"They just came to inform me that we will be getting support from an independent grenadier company that will be assigned to the regiment. The other officer with the colonel was the commander of said company." She said as she let the hot beverage make her mind feel at ease.

"I'm sure we could use all the support we can get." He said. "Yes, though I still don't like our orders, with or without an additional company of mechanized infantry."she replied as she waved him away. At least Anjem could follow non verbal instructions.

As the door swung shut behind him as he exited, locking into place with a familiar "click", she thought to herself "Maybe thought, the addition of those bloody fanatics would end in more trouble than good." She took another sip from the mug. "Well, that's still in the future. Before that, let's hope that the Astartes can manage their task or else we won't even live to find out."

She returned to the pile of unread reports and documents on the side of the desk with another deep sigh.

* * *

After having split up with the other marine, Leonas engaged his helmets vox. His every step thundering on the hard permacrete floor as he ran down corridors filled with mutilated corpses.

An image of the captains face appeared in the corner of his helmets display. He blinked it away the moment it appeared, leaving only the voice of the captain in his ear.

"Speak brother." His voice was filled with static and the barking of Bolters could beard in the background.

"I know we are her on a mission from the god emperor to help cleanse this traitorous world and its population, but my mind has been drifting to dangerous places brother captain." Leonas spoke with concern in his voice.

"Tell me about those dangerous thoughts brother, nothing is more dangerous than a mind at doubt." The captains voice became more serious as he answered.

"We have all been briefed about the unspeakable astropathic message sent from this world, about how it renounced the rightful rule of the imperium and our most beloved Emperor." He started to explain.

The captain answered with silence, beckoning him to go on.

"I myself wish nothing more than for the ones responsible to meet a just and swift punishment at my own hands." Leonas went on to say how he felt about the mission.

"But until now, we have not encountered any open signs of any such heresy amongst the opponents we have faced. I'm beginning to doubt that there is any corruption, or at least that the corruption has spread everywhere yet." At first there was no response from the captain as Leonas got to the point of what was troubling him.

The buzz of static got louder as the captain finally answered. "I see what is troubling your mind brother, we will talk about this once you catch up to us, we are headed towards the main generatorums. Until then, keep up the assault and don't let these thoughts turn into pity or mercy towards the mortals." With that the vox channel was cut of.

Following the orders of the captain, Leonas speed up as he ran down the corridors. Following the trail of dead soldiers and personnel as much as the signs on the walls and hanging from the ceiling above.

He turned a corner underneath a sign that said 'main generatorum 02' and continued to sprint on. Each step thundering on the hard floor. His display popped up again, this time it was an image of his auspex scans of the surroundings. He took a quick glance at the map and found, up ahead around a corner and outlined in red, half a dozen contacts.

"Must be some stragglers that managed to slip through and survive." He thought to himself as he gripped the handle of his chainsword with his one hand and thumbed the activation rune.

He watched the dots seem to shy away a little as the engines of the chainsword roared to life, but it was already to late for them to back of now. He lunged around the corner as the dots slowly started to back away, revealing a terrified group of soldiers and maintenance personnel.

As they cried out in shock of his sudden appearance, his chainsword was already arching around towards them in a wide swing . The head of the lead soldier was messily ripped of before he even had a chance to bring his gun up. The rest of the group only stood there, completely frozen in shock at their comrades brutal end.

The one closest to him glanced at the imperial Aquila displayed on his chest as sweat started to run down his head. "Ha-Have you not come t-to save us?" He stuttered.

"No."

Before the soldier could even blink in response the chainsword had cleaved a deep gap in his abdomen. He let out a weak gasp and slumped to the ground whilst trying to keep his intestines from spilling out between his now bloody fingers. Leonas spared him no second thought and turned towards the rest of the group.

The imposing sight of the space marine, dripping in blood, was to much for some of them as their composure broke completely and they ran away screaming at the top if their lungs. Leonas notes that the fact that one of his arms was clearly missing only served to make him look even more fearsome.

Leonas released the power in his legs with an explosive kick that sent him of down the corridor, after the running soldiers and maintenance personnel. He batted the ones that still stood frozen in fear aside with the stump of his arm as he passed them, their broken bodies flying of with satisfying cracks against the wall.

In the blink of an eye he had closed the cap between them. As they turned their heads towards him with wide open eyes, his chainsword came down on them. Their screams cut short by the roaring weapon as it carved its way through bones, flesh and armor alike.

After a little longer of running down corridor after corridor, Leonas could hear the barking of bolters and the echoing of heavy footsteps from up abead. He had finally caught up to his brothers.

He turned the corner and came to a halt right behind a squad of assault marines finishing up with the last of the living soldiers. The squad leader turned towards him and formed the sign of the Aquila in greeting. Leonas answered with a nod as he slid his helmet of, revealing his scarred and tattooed face.

"Greetings brother." He said. "Greetings, what is the brother captains position? I have important matters to talk with him about." Leonas let a bit of urgency seep into his voice to carry across the need he had to meet with the captain.

"The captain is a few corridors up ahead, following a group of fleeing enemies. He should be back soon." The sergeant said as he pointed him down a corridor up nodded in thanks and ran after the captain.

True enough, after only a few seconds of running Leonas could hear the roaring of stormbolters and the heavy footfalls of terminators.

As he came up behind them he called out to the captain. "My lord, I have come as you told me to." The flowing red silk of the captains cloak flew as he turned towards him. "Good Brother."

As the captain answered, he glanced towards his honor guard, signaling for them to continue on without him. The lead Terminator nodded as they set of down the hallway ahead again. With that out of the way the captain stomped closer to Leonas. The golden Terminator plate towering over his black suit of power armor.

Just as Leonas was about to open his mouth to speak, he received a backhand strike across his face. Stunned, he stumbled backwards a few steps, to surprised to feel the blood starting to run down from the side of his head.

"M-My lord!?" He stuttered as he looked up at the captains face. His gaze was met by a pair of eyes burning with an intensity he had not seen before. He could feel the hairs on his neck stiffening and a cold drop of sweat rolling down the side of his head.

The captain let out a slow breath as he loomed over Leonas. "Are you questioning our rightful involvement in this most holy war? Are you questioning if we should let even a single huma… no, a single one of these heathens escape their judgement before our lord?"

Leonas has to swallow hard at the implications of those questions, and of the implications of his answer. "No my lord! I would never even dream of doing such a vile thing."

"What you told me over the vox tells me another story, sergeant. I hope you have a good explanation. Questioning the rightfulness of the emperors servants is a crime almost as grave as selling your soul to damnation." The captain spoke through gritted teeth.

Pausing a moment before answering, Leonas took a deep breath and spoke. "My intentions where never to cast doubt upon the rightfulness of our cause, if I have done so then I will gladly accept my due punishment. I only sought to raise the question of if we are fighting the right enemy here."

The captain backed of a few steps, the fury in his eyes diminishing but not fading away. Wrinkles formed on his forehead as he pondered over something. Leonas could almost grasp the tensions in the atmosphere around them. What would the captain think of his answer? How would he react? Would he be angry or understanding?

After a few agonizing seconds of silence the captain seemed to have made his mind up.

"The deeds we carry out here today are a necessity for the further successes of the campaign. If we where to spare our enemy here, innocent or not, then the guard would not be able to make planetfall. And as such would not be able to carry out this worlds sentence."

The captain paused for a second, making sure that Leonas caught on with his rationale of the situation. As Leonas didn't seem to raise a counter argument he continued.

"So as you see, we are in a sense fighting the right enemy at the moment. Maybe not as you meant but the right as the Emperor requires." Leonas eyes lit up in understanding and he nodded to show that he didn't disagree. "I see now, captain."

"Let us not waste further time here, brother." The captain said as he waved Leonas to follow as he turned and set of again down the endless corridors. He quickly followed up behind the shining bulk of the captain as they followed the way the Terminator honor guards had gone.

From there on out there was only token resistance up till the closed gates to the generatoums. Here and there a dead solder would be slumped against the walls or behind a corner, often with either big gashes across their bloodied bodies or with their chest cavities blown out by explosive bolts. If the concentrated resistance at the main entrance was to little to stop them then these scattered and demoralized solders stood no chance.

Even at the entrance to the generatorum, the few defenders left simply chose to throw their weapons away and run. And so, the marines of the 2nd company stood before the heavy steel gate that was their target. Having reached it in less than an hour since their landing.

At the silent command of the captain, the marines formed up in their pre-determined positions as a Terminator yet again stepped up and brought his chainfist to bare on the metal surface. Leonas was 3rd in line to enter after the terminators and waited patiently for the chainfist to do its grinding. He eagerly fingered the activation rune on the handle of his blade as he watched the sparks flying and illuminating cog symbol painted on the gate in a yellow shade.

As the grinding finished and the outline of the hole was ready the first terminator stepped aside so that his comrade with the stormshield and the thrunderhammer could take over, mirroring the process of opening the main entrance gate. Leonas pushes the activation rune and felt the engine of his blade rumble to life in his hand as his eyes followed the hammer as it fell on the door.

The heavy steel cut out was blown into the space behind with an ear shattering clank. The terminator raises his stormshield to meet the expected hail of incoming fire through the hole as he stepped trough and into the hall.

Everyone, including Leonas, was surprised as the expected hail of fire never came. But instead of falling into disarray at the unforeseen circumstances, they all quickly rushed through the hole into the fray and spread out on the other side. Centuries of constant training kicked in as Leonas eyes immediately scanned after any sign of threats.

Neither he nor his brothers found anything, apart from a handful of servitors, that resembles any form of enemies. And the servitors barely registered as their sorry forms moved around amongst the machinery without even noticing the marines.

"Looks like our enemy has given up." One of the marines laughed as they fanned out into the hall. Catching sight of a ladder up to the walkways snaking around the huge generators, Leonas climbed up the steps. At the top he stepped on to the walkway and stepped closer to the closest generator unit.

Looking up the height of it he had to crane his neck to be able to se the ending. Marveling at the complex design of the ancient piece of technology, it made him almost regret having to destroy it. Most of the generators structure was made up of a pair of huge coils stretching up towards the roof, their brass surfaces a slight bluish shade from heat discoloration.

At the base where the coils met the floor and the roof they where swallowed up by large metal housings with countless cables and cords of different sizes snaking out and across the floor. Chipped hazard stripes lined multiple access hatches, here and there dots of the yellow stripes showed trough the layers of oil and grime covering them.

Leonas's inspection was interrupted as one of the servitors bumped into him as it tried to access some part of the machine for maintenance. Annoyed by the slave machine he smacked it aside with his good arm, Sending it tumbling over the railing. It landed head first on the cold hard floor with a off putting crack and remained lying there motionless.

"Shall I call the tech adepts to come over and explain how it works or shall we continue on with our mission?" A voice behind him asked jokingly. He spun around to se who it was and found the same sergeant he had met earlier in the corridors standing behind him. Glancing down he found that the black plate of his arm and the lightning claw was still coated in the blood of the officer.

"Here brother, place it where it will do the most damage." He said as he handed over a cylindrical device. Taking it and inspecting it, Leonas found that is was a magnetic melta bomb. A grin formed on his face under his helmet as he nodded to the sergeant, he had just the right place in mind for it.

As the other marines clamped their charges all over the generatorum Leonas decided to climb up on top of the large housing and clamp his bomb directly on one of the two coils. The device sucked itself towards the metal and clung to the surface with the audible clinging of metal hitting metal.

Confirming that it really stuck, Leonas pulled at it a little. As it didn't show any signs of coming off he then thumbed the activation rune and set it to detonate via remote control.

Leonas jumped down from the housing onto the walkway, creating indents on the metal plating as he landed. "All clear up here!" He shouted down towards the captain. "All clear here as well!" "Charges sett and ready for detonation." "My charge is set and ready!" His call was echoed by the rest of the marines setting up their bombs as well.

"Good work, mission completed. I have informed the Ihra dominatio ferro and the second run of thunderhawks is already on its way to pick us up. Our brothers deployed to destroy the other laser silos are reporting success as well." The captain called out as he turned to leave the generatorum whilst signaling everybody to follow.

All of the marines present immediately set of to follow him down the corridor, this time not to enter but to leave. Leonas jumped over the railing of the walkway and set of after his brothers after landing on the floor with a loud crash.

The way back outside as comparably uneventful to the fighting to get in. At no place they encountered resistance from the defenders, not even a small skirmish against lone soldiers. That was not to say that the compound had been abandoned by the enemy, no. The auspex readings showed multiple contacts lurking in hiding spots all the way to the entrance gates. But even with so many possible targets around them, the marines ignored them and continued on in a hurry, not wanting to miss the gunships on their second pass or let the pilots wait outside vulnerably exposed to any possible counter attack.

* * *

Hearing the echoing sound of roaring engines, guardsman Guther stuck his head outside the ventilation shaft to took it the black giants had left. He had been lying in the cramped shaft for the better part of an hour, covering in a puddle of his own making as the sounds of his former friends screams echoed all around alongside the ear shattering barking of bolters.

He could neither see nor hear the giants anymore, nor could he see our hear anyone for that fact. He crawled out of the shaft and landed on the floor in a crouched position before starting to make his way from where the giants had come. As he turned around a corner he came face to face with something that made his stomach churn and want to scream.

On the floor before him, spread out all the way down the corridor, where multiple horribly mutilated corpses. Some where blown wide open with their innards spread all around in small pieces whilst some looked as if a huge beast had bitten ahold of them and started to fill them apart messily. But worst of all wasn't the state of the wounds nor the brutality of the scene. No, worst of all was that most of their faces where still recognizable.

He could se the lifeless expressions of multiple friends lying amongst the dead. Jenkins upper body was slumped agains a wall, with autogun still in hand, with his abdomen ending in a mess of intestines and spine hanging out like some freakish squid. Further down the corridor, under another body, was what looked like his legs.

Guthar felt a lump appear in his throat and his eyes well with tears as a sudden dealing of guilt built up inside him. "He had left them, he had ran away and hid whilst they had to face those giant monsters and had died as a result. If only he had been there!" Where all thoughts going through his head and they only made him feel worse.

He remembered how he had talked to Jenkins just the day before in the canteen. How Jenkins told him that he would be allowed to leave and see his parents in hive Strahau for one day in only a few weeks.

Sniffing, he stopped himself from thinking any further and stumbled onwards down the hallways, not bearing to look at his friend any more.

The same scene repeated itself over and over as he came across bodies after bodies of people ha knew. In some cases the only indicator of whom the body once belonged to where the name tags on their tunics. Nearing the generatorum he stumbled across another body. The dog tag read 'Marentha. T'. She had been from another company also stationed here. Guthar hadn't known her but he had always thought that her face was really pretty and cute and he had meant to ask her if she would like to get a cup of recaf sometime. Now there wasn't much left of that pretty face as it had been caved in by a devastating blow right in the he left to go onwards he felt regret and not mustering up the courage to wake her earlier.

As he came to the gates to the generatorum he found that a big hole had been cut and somebody, probably the giants, had entered. As he carefully crept closer he realized that he was not alone anymore. From the junction ahead of him came two other people still left alive. They jumped up and let out a small shriek in panic as they where surprised that somebody else also was there. "What are you doing here?! Did the giants not kill everyone?" The first of the two said, a tall, brown haired guy clad in the yellow full body suite of the maintenance personnel.

"I was able to hide in a ventilation duct." Guthar said with a trembling voice. "How did you survive?"

"Luck I guess." He shrugged his shoulders. "We just ran away the moment we saw one of those giants and didn't stop to look back." The other person added. He was a bit shorter with ginger hair and clad in the same yellow suite.

"Did you manage to catch what the giants where here for? Did they have any objective or did they just come to kill everybody in their way?" The first one asked.

"No idea, but I would guess that they entered through here" he replied and pointed at the gaping hole in the gate.

Curiosity got the better of them as they peeped through the hole and into the generatorum. None of them had ever set foot in it as the cog boys where very picky with whom they let close to their property so they where taken aback by the huge marvel of human engineering dominating the whole chamber.

As they continued to scan the generatorum one of them noticed the servitors lying lifeless on the floor. "I definitely can tell you that somebody was in here." The ginger haired one said as he squeezed past them into the chamber and snuck towards the servitor. As he got closer he jerked back as the body twitched a few times. "Ahh!" He let out a short scream at the sudden movement.

Their attention was suddenly pulled away from the servitor by a strange beeping sound coming from one of the control panels close to them. Curious, they all stepped inside and got up to the control board. Now that they where closer they could we that another device that clearly wasn't supposed to be there was stuck to the side of the panel. "What is that?" Guthar asked in a cautious tone.

* * *

As the rattling got less and less, the vox speakers inside the passenger compartment crackled to life and the mechanical voice of the pilot carried through. "We are reaching the upper atmosphere and I have received vox hails from the other gunships coming from the secondary targets informing that all evacuations have been carried out without interruptions."

The captains smiling face was illuminated by the flickering lights running along the roof of the compartment. In his hand he held the kill switch connected to the charges that his marines had just planted in all three targets. Looking down on it he pressed the activation switch detonating the charges before mag locking it to his waist.

"Brothers, today we have prepared the stepping stone from which our allies in the Astra Militarum shall launch their struggle to rid the cancer that is corruption from this world. Let us all pray for their success against the foulest of enemies of man, let us pray that every innocent soul lost in this struggle will be guided to the side of the Emperor and let us pray that those who seek to turn from the Emperors light shall burn in holy fire."

"Ave Imperator. Through fire and faith we cleanse our foe and ourselves!" The marines in the compartment answered the captains speech with the chapters battlecry. "Fire and faith!" The captain echoed their calls.

The heat let out by the melta charges as they detonated immediately evaporated every living cell in the entire room before turning over half of the generators into glowing heaps of molten sludge. The following stress to the remaining reactors as they tried to make up for the sudden loss of power output resulted in a critical overloading of said reactors followed by a violent detonation. The same process was repeated in both of the other defense laser batteries as they also overloaded and detonated.

The ensuing light from the explosions was at first thought to be the sun rising over the horizon by the inhabitants of the closest hive, such was its brightest. The plums of smoke and debris rose all the way up to the lower layer of clouds where it spread out, casting a dark shadow over the inhabitants of Charctus like a bad omen for what was to come.

* * *

So, that was chapter 5. Hope you liked it and as allways, if you have any criticism about the story so far or my writing, or ideas about the coming war then please, feel free to post a review.

I think i will someday in the not to distant future go back and re do the first chapters as i, when i read them again, realize how bad they are in some cases. Hope you have patience and stick with me on this one.


	6. Chapter 6

Hello! Your favorite part time writer and god of all that is potato is back with another (long?) anticipated chapter. (Please don't kill yourselves at my terrible sense of humor) Like I said, it takes far too long for me to push one of these chapters out.

* * *

As the deafening rumble of the engines stopped and the APCs came to a halt, a man dressed in the purple fatigues of a PDF officer came barking at them. Stepping up on the back of the APC he hammered the side of the compartment with a baton. "Up you lazy dogs, no slacking off in your seats! We wouldn't want the trains to have to wait for us when they arrive now would we?"Sam, feeling intimidated by the shouting officer, decided against being a smart ass and saying that there was no way anybody could relax in such a cramped place.

As the first guardsmen was literally dragged out by the collar by the shouting officer, the rest who had been reluctant to get up quickly followed. Sam and Thomson shared a glance with each other as one öfter after the other they stood up and climbed out.

As it became Sams turn to jump out he enjoyed the opportunity to finally stretch his legs again. As his boots connected with the ground after jumping out he immediately looked around in search for his dad. His eyes wandered over the people standing close by, and found him. He had just come out of the Orion behind the one he had rode.

Quickly rushing over they embraced each other in as tight of a hug as the flack wests would allow. They hadn't been separated for long but for him it had been enough, especially now that he was the only one there for him since they had been separated from his mother.

"Calm down, I know that this all still must be new and worrying for you but we where only apart for the drive. Nothing to be so worked up about." Sams dad said as he patted him on the back before he pushed them apart again.

Suddenly, he felt someone grab his shoulder and was yanked around. As his head spun around he found Robett's face right in his. Sam twitched and let out a slight squeak at the sudden scare, to which he was met by loud laughter from Robett.

"Hahaha! Easily scared as always I see, eh?" He teased. "You really should to do something about that, can't have you scream every time something happens." Lucie cut in over Robett's shoulder. The realization that his crush had heard and seen his girlish squeal left Sam with a distinct blush, one he quickly tried to hide by bowing his head down.

By now Thomson had joined the group as well. Standing taller than all of them he stood behind Sams dad giving of a feeling of ease and trust as he watched them have a go with Sam.

Now that everyone was here Sam's curiosity got to him and his eyes started to explore the surroundings. Right to his left he could see hundreds more Guardsman standing bunched up in groups right before what he only could assume to be the outskirts of one of the huge industrial railway stations. Curious at the new faces he inspected their insignia. Looking closer he saw their company badges, they where different from his own.

"They must bee from a different recruit company." He thought to himself as he continued to explore.

Huge sets of rails ran past them and of into the distance, disappearing as much in between the towering hab blocks and industrial manufacorums as in the thick smog that clung to the ground like a dense poisonous fog.

Before his eyes could explode more of the surroundings the officer came over and pulled them all towards the others by the neck. "Ow ow ow!" Sam squirmed under the painful grip of the officer.

Luckily for them he let go after only a few steps and gave them one last shove to join the closest group in standing there and waiting.

Rubbing his neck from where the grip had held him Sams eyes once more started to again wander the surroundings. Bordering the tracks behind barbed wire fences where wast storage grounds for countless containers of differing sizes. The huge hydraulic cranes and servo haulers of the mechanicus where hard at work organizing them after some kind of system that only left Sam puzzled. Patrolling the fences and in amongst the maze of containers where the combat servitors and automata charged with security.

"Where are we?" He turned to ask his dad who stood next to him in the growing crowd. "No clue son, but I would hazard a guess that it's closer to the outskirts of the hive and on a lower level then we where on before." He said as he pointed out that they could see the dark night sky in the distance and that the air surrounding them was much heavier in smog and fumes than before.

Laughter caught his attention and he spun around to investigate. There, a few feet away in the crowd was Robett. He was standing in a small clearing made by the people around him and performing various small acts to get the people to laugh. Right now he was busy recollecting about some funny event he had gone through.

The story was about how the servitor driving an autocab he had taken had malfunctioned, letting him of without having to pay for the trip. And how later on when he had been confronted about it by an employee of the Autocab firm he had not only convinced her that he didn't need to pay but had even managed to whoo her into a short intimate relationship lasting for a few weeks.

As he finished the story, even going into some detail about what he and the female employee had done together with some exaggerated charades and movements, the crowd around him started to laugh and some even applauded him jokingly. Sam didn't feel like the story had been particularly humorous but quickly felt a little group pressure to join in as he even caught a glance of Lucie snickering to the story.

That partially left Sam with mixed feelings. Having the girl he had a crush on liking and even laughing to a story about his friend getting lucky and even bedding another woman wasn't to thrilling. He let out a sigh as he couldn't do anything against it. If she wanted to laugh she was free to laugh.

His gaze was ripped from Robett's act as a deep horn rang out across the whole station. Wiping his head around he and many of the others let out mumbles in a mixture of excitement and nervousness as the huge silhouette of one of the mighty mechanicus railways approached.

Breaking out of the thick smog, the first thing to bee seen was the huge cog symbol adorning the front, the huge half human and half machine skull which dominated it staring out at them like a creature of nightmares.

"Back off! Back off!" The ones at the front shouted as they pushed everyone away from the approaching train. Sam almost stumbled over his own feet as he too realized that they where way to close to the tracks than safe.

Screeching as it slowed down, the first wagon rolled past them followed by another and then another until the 3rd wagon ultimately came to a halt right before them. A set of comparably small doors slid open on each end of the wagon, revealing a corridor to the inside, the sliding doors quickly followed up by sets of retractable steps sliding out.

Sam was left speechless as he stood before the huge machine. Never before had he seen such an impressive sight of human engineering, the closest thing to which he could compare it to where the autocabs and trucks that traveled on the packed streets. It was and unfair comparison in all honesty.

Looking along the hull of the wagons he could se the original color that the train once had been, under layers of rust, grime, dirt and dust he could make out a faded and chipped coat of green.

Sam wasn't surprised to find a number of weapons lining the hull as well. Most of which where mounted in sunk in sponsons on the side but he could also see the shape of a rotating turret on top as well.

"All aboard ladies, the train won't wait forever! Another officer, whom he recognized as collonel Robert Sataul Warrensaid, shouted as he climbed up the steps and hung out of the doorway. Gripping his equipment Sam followed his dad and the rest of the group as they went to join the cue forming in front of the closest door.

One by one the guardsmen in front of him climbed up and stepped inside until it was his turn. He reached out and grabbed ahold of the handles lining the door and somewhat clumsily pulled himself up to the first step. Once up he stepped inside and was swiftly followed by his dad as he heaved himself up as well. Inside they followed the short corridor leading to a spacious room.

Calling the passenger compartment comfortable was a step to far, but it was a long way from the overly cramped and loud compartment of the Orion APC. Multiple long rows of seats ran down the length of the wagon and baggage holds hung from the ceiling for them to put their equipment in.

After storing his extra equipment Sam went to take a seat on one of the empty seats right opposed to where his dad was sitting. He let himself slump down on one of the seats, taking care to leave one empty seat between himself and Lucie next to him. As he considered weather or not to try and get closer to her by scotching closer and maybe starting a conversation his plans where interrupted as Robett let himself down right on the seat in between them with a wide grin.

Cursing himself mentally he was caught of guard as Robett leaned in on him and whispered in his ear. "Is there something between you guys? Why one seat apart?" Sam thought about how to answer thy question without making him look scared or insecure. "No, it just that I, eh.. wanted to sit here at the window." He said the first thing that came to mind, pointing at the small round window on his other side.

"Suite yourself. I for one wouldn't say no to sitting to a cute girl even if the emperor forbade it." He continued to talk with Sam as if Lucie next to him wasn't there or couldn't hear him.

The car door of the compartment slid open opened and another officer stepped forwards into the doorframe. Looking up from a dataslate he held in his hand he rustled his voice to get all of their attention. "This train is going to take us directly to our deployment area outside of the walls, we will be stationed there here for the forceable future to bolster the garrison there. It will take about an hour until we pass the walls, from then on it will take a few more hours to get to our final destination. We can expect the trip to go without any hindrances or stops so I suggest you all grab a few hour of sleep whilst you are at it."

After saying that he turned back and left the compartment, letting the door slide shut behind him. Sam shot a glance towards Robett next to him who was busy talking to a completely uninterested Lucie. He wasn't going to wind down any time soon. Thinking about the officers advice Sam realized that he was actually feeling sleepiness creeping onto him. With nothing better to do he closed his eyes and placed his head agains the window behind him.

After a while of waiting the floor started to tremble. This and the feeling of slowly being pushed to one side meant that the train had started to move once again. After that, Sams consciousness drifted of to sleep.

Sam had no idea how long he had been asleep as he woke up again. The first thing he noticed when he opened his eyes where the rays of sunlight shining through the small window and right into his face. Squinting his eyes shut he felt the sleepiness leave his body as he regained full consciousness.

He looked around in the compartment, packed with still sleeping guardsmen, for any sign of a watch or something to indicate the time with. After a quick search he found one hanging of the panels going above the doorways. It took him a bit before he realized that something was wrong with the watch. The timer showed that it was still a good few hours from morning…

Then why was it so bright outside?

Shaking his head he went to look outside the small window in hopes of shining a light on the mystery. But before he could do that he heard an ear shattering bang and the small window was shattered to pieces. Immediately after, the whole train wagon rocked hard as it struck by something large.

As the glass shards peppered the inside of the train, everybody was flung of their seats and onto the floor. Sam was left stunned for a while as he smashed his head agains the edge of the seat of his dad, who also lay sprawled on the floor. Reaching up to his face multiple cuts across his cheek flared in pain as his fingers brushed over them. He quickly withdrew his hand and hit down a bit on his lip to distract from the pain.

Now fully awake, the rest of the guardsmen in the compartment all tried to organize themselves and to calm themselves down after being awoken so abruptly and violently. Sam too was gasping for air as his ears felt ready to explode, he placed a hand across his chest in an attempt to calm his beating heart from the sudden scare. He looked around in the cabin for everybody else. There hunched over and clutching his head was Robett. And next to him sat Lucie, clutching her knee high one had as the other brushed messy hair out of her face.

He turned to look outside the small window again, as he looked outside he noted that the light shining through the window had noticeably toned down by now as well. As he peeped through the small circular hole he could see a shining dot in the distance slowly moving up into the surrounding backdrop of the dark sky. As he squinted to better make out what it was his heart almost skipped a beat, staring wide eyed at the distant dot he realized that it in fact wasn't the sun shining on them but instead a yellow glowing mushroom could rising up in the distance.

All of a sudden he had even more of a bad feeling about their situation. Firstly he was violently taken and trained against his will, then he would be sent of to somewhere and now explosions where erupting in the distance. He did not have to be a genius to figure out that this was probably not good new.

Feeling something knocking against his knee he snapped his head around. "Hey, move your head, I want to see too." He moves his head out of the way as Thomson pushed him aside to get to the window. He turned to his dad who by now was wide awake as well. "Dad, are you alright?" Sam said with concern as he noticed the streak of blood running across his forehead.

"Yeah yeah, don't worry about me. But, what was that?" His dad asked with a look of confusion as he looked around at the chaotic compartment. "It looked as if something big out there exploded, you can see the explosion fro.." "HOLY SHIT! There is a huge explosion out there!" Thomson shouted in panic, grabbing everyone's attention.

The cabin, which had started to settle down again, erupted as everyone tried to push each other aside to get a look through the windows. "What?!" "Are we under attack?" Everyone vent on raving in each other's mouths in a panic as hundreds of questions where asked at the same time.

Sam, who had been swept up in the uproar, saw in the corner of his eye one of the doors to the cabin sliding open and one of the officers from earlier rushing in.

Shaking people to grab their attention, Sam pointed them towards the officer who had come who had started to try and make himself heard over everybody else. As the the compartment quickly quieted down and everybody turned towards the officer expecting an answer, they could finally hear him.

Looking just as surprised and stressed as they where, he stumbled over his own tongue as he started to stutter out some kind of explanation. "What was that explosion out there?" He was interrupted by someone in the crowd at the windows before he could start.

"U-Uh… t-that was, uh… that was a we-weapons test. Yeah! A weapons test out there, you saw a weapons test." He stuttered out an answer to all of their questioning looks. It was immediately clear to Sam and most of the others that something wasn't being told to them. Clearly the officer was under stress and was just as shocked as they where.

"A-Any way, there is no reason for anyone to be worried, everything is just fine. Now, we have about one hour left until we arrive so you should go back to rest. Leave the curiosity and the question asking to the inquisition." Not even he chuckled at his own tasteless joke.

After a moment of silence he turned and left as the door slid shut behind him.

"We should go back to rest. Weather what he said was true or not doesn't matter right now as we have no way to find out or to do anything anyway. So just push it to the back of your mind and rest some more." Same dad said to him as he scuffed over in his seat and closed his eyes again.

Thinking that what his dad said was probably true Sam still looked over to the cabin door a few more times, as if expecting the officer to come back and explained some more, before going back to his seat. He sat down with a grunt of dissatisfaction and closed his eyes again, trying to push all of the questions on his mind to the back of his head.

* * *

Stepping down from the ramp of the Thunderhawk with great thundering strides the captain immediately waved one of the serfs over to him. With black robes flattering around him the serf quickly rushed over and fell to his knees in front of the mighty Astartes. "You summoned me my lord." He said with his gaze turned to the floor.

"Yes serf, you shall deliver a message to the Master of the vox Saikeena Vales. Tell her I wish to speak with her immediately once I reach the bridge, she shall deliver a message from me to Marshal 198-254 of the 147th Imperial guard siege army." He said without even looking at the kneeling serf as he walked past him and across the launch bay of the Battle barge.

"Yes my lord, I shall inform her of your wish. She will be awaiting your arrival at the bridge." The left behind serf said, still kneeling and looking downwards. Confident that his lords enhanced hearing would pick up his answer without effort.

Saikeena marched up and down the width of the bridge as she awaited the captains arrival. She was wearing her best uniform through which she was sweating profoundly. To call her nervous would be an understatement, she barely held this position for a couple of months, being transferred to the position form a much smaller navy vessel. She had barely had enough time to get used to the fact that she was serving under the Emperors own angels, and on such a large vessel no less. And now she was being summoned by the captain of the 2nd company himself.

As she had gotten the news that the captain of the Astartes wished to speak with her she had almost lost it, she had probably spent a good half hour just in front of the mirror in her cabin fixing every minute detail of her uniform so that it would be spotless.

She was clad in the usual officers uniform of the navy but instead of the deep blue of navy uniforms hers was in the black and silver of the chapter colors. Woven into the silk like material over her arms where the chapter symbols and on the shining breastplate she woren she proudly presented the golden Aquila along with some minor medals and and honorary markings.

"Could you please cease marching up and down the bridge, your impatient demeanor is starting to rub off on the crew." The captain beckoned her in an annoyed tone from up on her command throne.

Saikeena came to a halt in front of a desk ,featuring a holographic projection of a map of the star system, with a sigh. Her mood getting the better of her she started to instead silently drumming on the side of the table. A few of the ships officers who stood leaned over the desk cast glances her way before resuming what they where doing.

She turned towards the old captain from where she was standing and mustered her up before she answered. Her remaining facial features revealed her old age as the wrinkled skin hung off of her bones.

"How would you even know what my demeanor is? Your eyes are long gone." She spat out in a mocking tone before quickly covering up her mouth as she realized what she had just said. And more importantly, to whom.

The captain let out a resigned sigh. Saikeena almost held her breath, expecting a hail of abuse to come her way. But to her delight the captain was above getting worked up over a slip up like that.

"Yes child. My eyes are long gone, and I myself have over the years grown more apart of the ship than human. But even if my eyes are gone and I'm forever bound to this throne I can still see and feel everything on this ship as if it was my own body." It was true, the meager remains of her human form where engulfed in wiring and tubes leading into her head, body, arms and spine.

A thick set of cords and wiring even ran down from the ceiling and into her head where a normal persons eyes would be. Saikeena was sure that the captain was using the pict recorders all over the bridge to follow her every movement.

Before the conversation could get any more awkward they where interrupted by a hissing sound from the back of the bridge. Turning to look she saw the doors of the bridge sliding shut and the huge forms of two Astartes walking towards them.

Recognizing the middle one as the captain she, as well as the rest of the bridge staff, went down on one knee. As she looked up at the captain she noted that the he wasn't clad in his power armor like the other marine flanking him, but instead in a simple set of long loose robes hanging of his bulging physique.

The marine next to him was clad in the shining silver armor and skull helmet of the chapters reclusiam. She guessed him to be chaplain Tazaro. She winced slightly and quickly turned her eyes away as her gaze was met by the glaring red eyes of the skull helmet looming over her. The almost judging glare of the imposing helmet sent a shiver through her as her neck hair rose up.

With a slight look of satisfaction the captain beckoned her to stand up again. "Rise, Master of the vox. I have a message you shall send to the commander of the 147th Imperial guard siege army." He said as he raised his hands in front of her, as if he was pulling her up by strings.

Rising back up on her feet she refrained from looking him in the eyes and instead turned her gaze downwards. "Yes my lord, what message do you wish the vox hail to contain?"

Stepping past her he placed his hands behind his back and gazed out of the wide mosaic windows of the bridge. The star filled darkness of the void reflecting in his gleaming eyes as the shapes of the two bulk haulers carrying the guard regiments slowly grew in the distance.

"Inform him that we have upheld our pledge to the campaign and succeeded in destroying three orbital defense batteries beyond the point of repair. The safe landing zone's required for his armies deployment have been created. Tell him also that our prayers are with him for the ultimate success of his campaign."

Nodding towards him as he finished she noted down what he had said on a data slate so that she could later repeat it over the vox. "Any thing else you wish to add to the message my lord?" She asked to make sure she had the entire message.

"No, that will be all. You are dismissed and free to send the message." Tugging the scroll under her arm she gave the captain another deep bow before turning to leave. As she came last him she stopped and gave the chaplain a deep bow as well before she walked of the bridge, the bulkhead sliding shut behind her with a silent hiss.

"She is young and inexperienced. Her nervousness and when dealing with the Emperors angels is apparent for all to see, one dose not require the eyes of someone taught in the matters of the soul and mind to see it." Tazaros voice was harsh in its judgement, even through the crackle of the helmets vox.

"She is young, but eager to serve and learn under you, my lords." The ships captain chipped in from up on her throne. Defending the girl in her absence.

"Yes, on to other matters though. Once all vessels have landed and been secured in the launch bays, and once the master of vox has sent her message, you are to set corse out of the system with all haste and prepare for warp travel." The captain answered both of them, still gazing out at the distant stars.

"As you command." A slight smile formed across her aged features.

* * *

Most of the command staff of the 147th was assembled by the marshal and the captain of the vessel on the bridge of one of the bulk haulers. As the bulkhead slid shut behind the last officers to arrive the meeting could begin.

Gathering around one of the larger holo projector tables the captain, illuminated by the green glow of the projected map of a landscape hovering above the table, was the first to speak. Fiora turned her head towards the grumpy looking man as he opened his mouth.

"Gentlemen, I will go straight to the point and spare you any unnecessary talk. My master of vox has received a message from the Astartes vessel." He began as he pointed towards the wrinkled form of the heavily augmented navy officer next him. "It states that they have successfully fulfilled their objectives and opened up the wished for landing zones and are now departing. The captain of the second company also sends his regards and prays that the emperor blesses your campaign with success."

The gathered officers lightened up at the news. Many certainly feeling honored that the esteemed Astartes has blessed their cause. Fiora no less. With the blessing of the emperor and the lord of the Astartes she felt like she could take on any task.

"However…" The captain interrupted, as if to keep the mood from getting to cheerful. "My master of Etherics has shared with me concerning auspex readings from the surface. It appears that many of your estimations of the enemies defenses have been underestimations. Just take a look at this map."

He threw out his arms across the holographic map in front of them all as if to embrace it. Looking closer at the green glowing map she realized that it simulated the landscape stretching from the closest walls of hive Strahau all the way to her deployment coordinates.

"By the throne!" She mumbled to herself as her eyes widened at the sight of a virtual web of red lines and dots, symbolizing defensive rings and connecting forts, stretching out from the walls far beyond what the maps she had been given access to had led her to believe.

"The damned bastards have also been busy preparing for us, Emperors damn it!" The Cadian colonel next to her cursed loudly for all to hear.

Snapping her eyes up at the marshal opposition to her she glared at him as if expecting him to tell her what would happen now. "What does this mean for my mine and the 41st's orders, is our operation cancelled our do we proceed?"

The marshal did not answer immediately, only stating down at the map for a while. The green map reflecting in his masks eye lenses which hid his expression. Feeling herself loose the staring contest with the eery lenses she had to blink and let out a soft sigh.

After a while the marshal rattled his throat and answered. "Your operations still stands. Your regiments are to launch an assault upon hive Strahau, drawing away enemy attention. After these news we can with confidence expect the enemies capabilities to exceed what we have expected and as such a diversionary attack to draw away enemy attentions will be even more needed."

Fiora had almost expected such a reply and as such she didn't let it surprise her in the slightest. "This also means that your efforts will be even more crucial than before. I herby issue the order that your regiments are forbidden from disengaging the enemy no matter the costs, unless I order otherwise. Do you understand?"

She was prepared for such an outcome but actually hearing it from his mouth still was like a kick to the gut. "Yes sir!" Both she and the colonel of the 41st replied. One with far less enthusiasm than the other. "No matter the cost huh? Well let's hope it doesn't come to that." She thought to herself bitterly.

"The timetable still stands, the ships will be within range to begin launching the landers by 2300 tomorrow. If you have your regiments ready by then it shouldn't take more than one or two days at most to deploy both of your regiments." The captain cut into the discussions again.

"I will send a message to sector command, informing them of these new revelations and asking for further reinforcements." The marshal said with a nod as to close the briefing. "Colonel's, I recommend you go and ready your regiments and finish any last maintenance checks on your tanks. This entire war may very well depend on your performance. I expect the best of you. Dismissed!"

Calling the marshals last words encouraging would be a bit to far Fiora thought. But none the less, she left the bridge with a determined look on her face.

Stepping into her regimental HQ all eyes landed on her as it became dead quiet. Everyone wanting to hear her orders. The temporary HQ had been set up in one of the biggest quarters available in the ships and massive vox sets and other forms of cogitators dominated the whole space.

"No change in our orders." She answered the unasked question hanging in the air. "I want the whole regiments to be ready for immediate deployment by midday tomorrow, so tell the cog heads in the engine workshops to wrap up whatever they still have to do."

Mumbles of excitement ran across the HQ staff and multiple exited expressions caught her eyes in amongst the crowd. Letting out a soft sigh, Fiora made her way past the men under her command and towards the door to her office. As she passed Anjem's desk she suddenly stopped, tapping the desk top to catch his attention as he was busy stashing pile after pile of paper reports away.

He immediately snapped his head up towards her. "Ehem, would you be so kind as to get me another cup of recaf to my office. I don't know what you did to the last one but it was damn good." A wide smile formed across his face as he gave a nod in reply. "It uses one of my mother's special secret ingredients, you liked it? Then I will get you another one shortly." Satisfied, she grabbed the handle to her door and stepped inside.

With the door closing behind her with a click she stepped across the floor of her office. The noise from outside was kept out by the thick metal walls so the only thing being heard inside the office where her boots against the metal floor.

She stepped around the desk and grabbed the chair behind it. She swiveled the heavy chair around and took a seat, letting herself sink into the soft leather material crafted from the hides of a Mukaali. As she swiveled around in her desolate office she started to think. Why had she not told them about the new revelations? Why had she kept quiet about the fact that the enemy would be much more heavily defended and that their casualties would probably stretch even higher? She was originally planning on telling them. So why didn't she?

Was it because they had seemed to eager and enthusiastic about finally getting to fight? Did she not want to take that feeling away from them just yet? Or was it just that she, when it came to it, just didn't care?

She shook her head at that last thought. "The fact that I'm even worrying about it proves that I'm nothing like those wretched men of Krieg." She told herself as to calmed her… worries? Was she worried that she could get like the Kriegers someday? She let out a silent chuckle. "By the throne, I have spent to much time in this tiny metal box of an office."

Suddenly the clicking of the lock and the sound of a heavy metal door swinging open ripped her out of her internal monologue. Turning around and looking up her eyes caught sight of Anjem squeezing through the door with a steaming mug in his hand and a smile plastered on his face. As he reached her desk he held the mug out towards her. A mug she quickly took and brought up to her lips.

Placing the mug down on the table after taking a sip she turned towards Anjem. "Any news from the tech priests in the workshops? How is the maintenance on Judgements Fangs going?"

"Oh, I was just about to give you the report from the enginseers. All maintenance checks are complete and all of the necessary rites and rituals have been performed. The enginseers report that the engines machine spirit is appeased and eager to shed blood under its treads."

A slight grin crept on to her face at the news. Her beloved personal command tank had seen her through many a engagement and she too was eager to ride in it once again. "Good, see to it that we will be aboard the first lander to be deployed."

Anjem nodded before snapping a salute and turning to leave.

* * *

This chapter was a bit more relaxed when it came to action but I feel that it's slowly moving forwards towards the impending outbreak of hell. I'm also toying with a few ideas for character development so my mind is not really made up on the rout I want to follow into the late game of our story (don't worry, the late game is still far far away). But right now I can say with confidence that I have multiple pieces of goodness planed out for future events

Like allways, if you have any ideas for improvements or changes then please do tell. Feel free to criticize or point out any errors I have made.


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